


Damaged Bodies, Growing Lives, Building Families.

by StarLight_Massacre



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-05
Updated: 2015-10-22
Packaged: 2017-11-28 08:16:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 21
Words: 156,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/672230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarLight_Massacre/pseuds/StarLight_Massacre
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry’s painstakingly rebuilt world is destroyed once again; then he meets Clint Barton, the sharp eyed archer from the renowned Avengers team. Left broken and pregnant, can he be put back together again? Does he even want to be fixed after everything he’s been subjected to? Or will his love for his baby and the support of the Avengers pull him through the very lowest point of his life?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Negligence and Breathing Exercises

**Author's Note:**

> Author: StarLight Massacre
> 
> Title: Damaged Bodies, Growing Lives, Building Families.
> 
> Rating: R
> 
> Warning: Slash, violence, M/M, language, blood, Mpreg, Alpha/Beta/Omega dynamics, knotting, graphic torture and dubious consent (One scene only)
> 
> Pairing: Clinton Barton/Harry Potter
> 
> Summary: Harry’s painstakingly rebuilt world is destroyed once again; then he meet’s Clint Barton, the sharp eyed archer from the renowned Avengers team. Left broken and pregnant, can he be put back together again? Does he even want to be fixed after everything he’s been subjected to? Or will his love for his baby and the support of the Avengers pull him through the very lowest point of his life?
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Harry Potter or the Marvel universe; all rights go to J. K. Rowling and Marvel comics. I make no money for this piece of fictional writing and never will.
> 
> \---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

Damaged Bodies, Growing Lives, Building Families

 

Chapter One – Negligence and Breathing Exercises

 

Harry James Potter, aged twenty, sighed once again as he scratched his forehead lightly. He stared at the open folder on his desk in irritation. He didn’t want to be here, least of all after hours, but then if he had wanted a nice, normal nine to five job, he wouldn’t have chosen to be a S.H.I.E.L.D agent. Nothing with S.H.I.E.L.D, standing for the Strategic Homeland Intervention; Enforcement and Logistics Division, was ever normal and perhaps it was that that let Harry fit right in.

His watch clicked over to eleven at night and he sighed, which was partly a groan of frustration and annoyance. He hated top secret information that required his immediate attention. Well, strictly it wasn’t _his_ attention it required, but his superior’s, but as the man was disgustingly lazy, he delegated it to Harry, even though Harry was very sure his eyes were not supposed to be looking at this sensitive information. He was a very young, junior agent, who wasn’t even legal to drink in this country, no, he was very sure this folder wasn’t meant for his eyes, or any of the other folders that had been delegated to him in the past.  

Turning the page he nibbled on the end of his pen as he read through the sheets in the folder carefully, moving his notepad closer to him before bending over it to scribble some notes in preparation for his final report, which had to be on his superior’s desk by seven in the morning. He smothered a yawn behind his hand, his third in as many minutes. Twenty years old he might be, but he was suffering from the barrage of consecutive very late nights and the even earlier mornings, coffee and potions could only help him so much and he was sure his health was deteriorating because of it. Madam Pomfrey would have flayed him alive if she’d seen him living like this.

Thinking of the stern, yet kindly matron brought back memories that Harry would much rather forget, of a time he would much rather forget. He swallowed the painful memories of the war and subconsciously rubbed his left hip, where a permanent scar remained as an unforgiving, painful reminder to all that had happened and all that he had lost.

The war had taken everything from him; everything but his own life and sometimes he wished fervently that that hadn’t been the case. He would have gladly swapped places with every single person who had died at Hogwarts that day, after everything had been done and finished and the dust had settled on the rubble and the cost of the war became apparent, he had wished that it had ended differently, if not for those who were already dead, then for himself. He wished that he had had the mercy of joining them in death.

Clenching a hand and forcing his mind to go blank, Harry sighed heavily as he realised that he had been lost in thought for twenty minutes and he still had a quarter of the last folder to still read through before he could even start on his final report.

Pulling a disgusted face he started once more from the top of the page, having forgotten what he had previously read during his day dreaming, jotting down relevant notes and paragraphs to do the write up report for his superior to hand over to _his_ superiors so that it looked like the man had actually done some work in his life.

Harry snorted at that thought, since he had arrived here as a fresh eyed intern a year and a half ago, he had immediately been bullied and roped into doing jobs and reports that he knew he wasn’t even cleared to know existed, let alone have permission to be allowed to read through every scrap of Intel S.H.I.E.L.D had on whatever top secret project his superior was supposed to be doing that month.

Leaning back to stretch out his aching muscles, Harry took a quick gulp of cool coffee, not even caring that it tasted foul when it was hot, let alone when it was almost stone cold, he just needed something to wake him up as much as possible, before he started reading once more, smothering yet another jaw breaking yawn.

Harry had not made very many friends since he had come to America, and it wasn’t any wonder really, he had come only a few months after the war had ended and he hadn’t felt much like socialising with anyone at that time; yet as soon as he decided that perhaps it might do him more good to spend a few hours out of the house that he had been holed up in for months on end by getting a small intern job, rather than staying cooped up and miserable all day, he ended up overworking himself every single day to the point of collapse sometimes, which again left him absolutely no time to socialise outside of a few polite greetings to his colleagues.

It was hard not having any real human contact and he was lonely, he would finish work very late, likely in the early hours of the morning, he would go back to an empty house that he didn’t see enough of to call his home, to get a few hours’ sleep in a bed too big and cold for just him and he would be back in work for seven sharp. It was even harder because he was a confirmed, classified Omega, he wanted human contact, preferably from an Alpha, but a Beta would do, hell even another Omega would do, he just wanted someone to talk to, someone to touch, it didn’t have to be sexual, he just felt so alone; isolated and lost.

Closing his eyes he breathed deeply, he didn’t know what was wrong with him today, he was more distracted than usual and it would mean he would be here for much longer if he didn’t get a lid on it. It was probably due to the fact that this week would have been his preheat week, if he hadn’t been religiously taking the suppressants that were required of all Omega S.H.I.E.L.D agents he would be having a heat period in the coming few weeks. Unfortunately he could only take the short term suppressants, the ones that didn’t have Tarcolite Ormeloxirone in them, which meant that every single long term suppressant was unavailable to him and he had to remember to swallow his suppressant tablet every single week, at near enough the same time no less, or he wouldn’t be protected, a far cry from the simple injection which would have protected him from three monthly heats, as well as his week of preheat, for an entire year that the other Omega agents were required to have.

Growling at himself and his scatter brain, Harry forced himself to once again put pen to paper after a check of his watch revealed that it was now twenty minutes to midnight, at this rate he wouldn’t be getting out of here until gone three, god forbid he have another night like the week before, where he had finished his reading research for his final report at quarter past five in the morning and realised that if he walked home like he usually did then he would barely get his foot in the door before having to turn around and come back to work, so he had curled up under his jacket, under his desk and not for the first time either.

A superior agent he didn’t know, had never worked with, and was very sure he had never seen before, named Agent Coulson had smiled kindly at him when Harry had emerged from under his desk early the next morning, very tousled, rumpled and still exhaustedly tired, and went searching the break room for the strongest coffee he could find. An hour later Harry had returned to his tiny office after washing up as much as he could in the rest room sink to find a very large, very hot, very strong take away cup of premium coffee on his desk. He had smiled and seized the gift, likely from the mysterious Agent Coulson, with both hands and devoured the coffee as he set to work once again on his research and reading after only two hours of very uncomfortable, restless sleep.

Harry smiled as he remembered the kind Agent and wished he had a superior like that, he doubted very much that Agent Coulson would have clocked off early, leaving his junior agent to stay in the office all night, doing reports that he should be doing personally and leaving very sensitive, top secret information in the hands of a junior agent who was only twenty years old. It was a good thing that Harry was neither incompetent, out to destroy the world, or willing to sell highly sensitive, top secret defence plans to belligerent countries.

The thought had passed through his mind several times that S.H.I.E.L.D was testing his trustworthiness with false leads and fake plans to see what he would do with that sort of information in his hands, but it had been over a year now, surely they wouldn’t _still_ be testing him? But he wouldn’t put it past the upper brass to be doing exactly that, but what kind of idiot did they take him for? Did they honestly expect him to believe that they handed all of their interns top secret defence plans for the country, schematics of new, prototype weaponry and floor plans of undercover S.H.I.E.L.D buildings? Surely no government agency was that stupid? Even the most moronic of interns would have smelt a trap and legged it.

Cursing himself again as his watch clicked over to midnight, Harry resigned himself to staying all night once again. He hated the temporary suppressant tablets; sometimes he fully believed that it would mess him up less to just let himself have a week’s holiday and let his body go onto its natural heat period, but then that brought up the whole preheat period he was currently stuck in, which only happened with the temporary tablets because his life was never easy, and the whole, if he found an Alpha he could get pregnant thing, because of course the same ingredient he was intolerant to was also in all the emergency contraceptive tablets, because his luck was just that bad.

Scribbling more important notes down, Harry was forced to stop as a huge yawn forced his eyes closed, that then watered when he opened them again. It had been a long week, hell it had been a long month and he wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep this up for. This past year was nothing if not intolerable, people couldn’t live on just a few hours of sleep every night, they couldn’t, it was impossible, but somehow, a year on, he was still doing it and still letting his superior reap all the benefits of his hard, exhausting work.

Tugging on his hair hard to wake himself up a bit, Harry turned the page and read a bit, before stopping to take notes, before carrying on. It was two in the morning before he finished the final folder and he pushed it aside, had a quick stretch while lamenting his long empty coffee cup, before he pulled the official report book towards him, opening it to the first page and taking a steadying breath, he couldn’t make a single mistake or he’d end up having to write the entire report again in a fresh booklet, of which he only had two left to last him next month as well, the worst mistake he had made had been a few months back, when he had rushed the end of the report to get home earlier and he had made a huge mistake on the very last page of his report, or rather the report his superior should have been writing himself, and he had had to start all over again from the very beginning. That had been the first time that Harry had had to stay in the S.H.I.E.L.D building overnight and much to his frustration, it was becoming more of the norm over finishing on time and getting to go home with all the other agents.

Thankfully Harry did not make any mistakes in his report this time and he breathed out a sigh of relief, leaving the signature area of the report booklet blank for his superior to sign in the morning, he checked his watch and let out a part groan, part sigh as he saw that it was gone half five in the morning, far too late to even bother wasting the energy walking home.

Dragging his jacket morosely from the back of his chair, Harry set his watch for seven in the morning before he slipped under his desk and covered himself as best as he could with his jacket, wishing that S.H.I.E.L.D had had the forethought to get a plusher carpet for their main office Headquarters so that maybe he wouldn’t be completely uncomfortable as he tried to rest on it. Harry was asleep almost before he finished finding a relatively comfy position on the floor, completely forgetting that he wasn’t even supposed to have been in work that day or the following day, never knowing that several floors above him, there was another, more senior agent, awake also, watching him through the security cameras that liberally littered the building.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry was woken up by the alarm he had set on his watch only an hour and ten minutes later and he groaned pathetically, dragging himself out from under his desk, holding onto his jacket as he crawled to his feet using his chair.

He blinked owlishly around himself, automatically falling into his lifelong habit of trying to flatten his hair fruitlessly, before he slipped his rumpled jacket on, picked up his finished report and the folders and case files that contained the information he had written it from and carried them into his superior’s office, leaving them in the middle of the desk neatly before heading to the nearest bathroom to clean himself up a bit in the sink, before making a beeline to the break room and hunting for something, anything, to wake him up and make him feel less dead.

He ignored the other agent in the break room until he spoke to him, making Harry peer closely at the man and realise that it was senior Agent Coulson, the kind man who had given him that gourmet coffee a week ago.

 

“Another all-nighter, Agent Potter?” The man tsked. “Here, have a blueberry muffin, you must be hungry.”

 

Harry stared longingly at the coffee he was waiting to drip through the percolator, before obeying the older, more experienced agent.

 

“You don’t want that swill, here.” Agent Coulson pushed another very large takeaway coffee cup towards him and Harry was ashamed at how fast and greedily he fell on it and the blueberry muffin that was handed to him from the paper bag.

 

It was with a pang of realisation that he remembered that the last time he had eaten something, anything at all, was two days previous when he’d stuffed a simple sandwich, he hadn’t left his office at all over the last two days except to get more coffee, for bathroom breaks and once to go home to get a few hours’ sleep before coming back to the office, he hadn’t once thought of food in that time, it hadn’t even crossed his thoughts.

 

“Thank you, Sir.” He replied sincerely and gratefully.

 

The man gave him such a kind, understanding smile that it forced an answering, if tired smile from Harry, who took out a couple of crumpled notes from his pocket to give the man, who waved him away.

 

“It’s more than alright.” Agent Coulson explained. “The coffee was from my usual place and they regularly give me free cups and the muffins were from a friend. I can’t say I’m fond of blueberry though, so perhaps you could do me the favour of eating the rest?”

 

Harry got the feeling that the Agent was not being truthful, but before he could decline, Agent Coulson was gone with a polite goodbye, leaving the bag of tempting muffins just sitting on the table. Harry knew that as soon as his colleagues arrived, there would be none left for Agent Coulson anyway, so he took them with a smile at one man’s kindness and generosity and hived them off, along with the coffee, to hide in his office, which he saw more of than anywhere else, waiting for his boss to come in, sign the report he had worked all night on and had read and researched about for the last month, as his own, hand it into his superiors and collect another top secret project for Harry to slave over for the next month. He didn’t even realise that his scrap pile of notes from his last project, that he usually shredded, had vanished from his desk.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Agent Phil Coulson reported to the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D, Nick Fury’s, office and slipped the several pieces of paper that the Director had asked for onto the desk in front of the man’s hands.

He immediately picked them up and scanned through them, picking up the first report booklet on the large stack to the right of him and opening it to a random page. He snorted at what he found, comparing the handwriting with disgust as he realised the small, neat, slightly cursive letters matched, he pulled another report booklet from the pile on his left and opened it to another random page and compared it to the scrap paper he held in his opposite hand, his face turning to thunder as again the letters matched. He dug in the pile of report booklets until he found one of the ones that was dated as the oldest, fourteen months ago and flipped it open. His hands clenched automatically as again the handwriting from senior Agent Bartholomew Nasri’s report booklets matched the handwriting of the most junior agent of S.H.I.E.L.D, Harry James Potter, a twenty year old young man who last year had been an introductory intern! As one last test he pulled out a report book, this time from a pile on his right, dated two years ago, before Agent Potter had joined S.H.I.E.L.D. The messy, indecipherably smudged, overly large letters mocked him from the page.

 

“You were right.” Fury growled to Coulson. “He’s been making the junior Agent write every single report, putting the safety of this entire country at risk! Handing him top secret, sensitive and potentially dangerous information freely! This was for his eyes only, who knows what that man could have leaked out due to his inertia.”

 

“I thought it was odd.” Coulson replied calmly. “A junior Agent’s work load isn’t strenuous enough to keep them here overnight, for any reason. My only regret is that I didn’t pick up on it sooner; Agent Potter has been looking terrible for months now. I assumed problems at home and didn’t like to pry, but when I found he had slept in the building overnight, I investigated further and found that it hadn’t been the first time. I have reviewed all relevant security footage and I believe that Agent Nasri has been making Agent Potter read all the case files handed to him as well as writing up all the final reports, he doesn’t seem to have done any of the work handed to him himself since Agent Potter arrived at the agency.”

 

“I can see that Agent Coulson.” Fury snapped, slapping the report booklet back on top of the pile. “How was this able to happen?!”

 

“It seems that as a senior Agent, Bartholomew was assumed to have been doing his job correctly and following protocol to the letter, no one questioned him or his habits. I have been asking around the department and some of the agents didn’t know there was an Agent Potter in their department. Those who did know of him said he was a hermit and took keeping himself to himself to a new level. Some believed he was just a very unsociable, very private man and didn’t bother him, others thought it was because they were Alphas or strong Betas and that he didn’t want to mix with them because he’s an Omega, they didn’t want to invoke the agency’s harsh policy on Omega harassment, so they left him alone, though they admit that it is hard to leave him be when he slips into a preheat, his increased production of pheromones distracts them and they didn’t want to tempt themselves by getting closer.”

 

Fury scrubbed his face in anger and frustration.

 

“As soon as Nasri is in this building, I want him in this office!” He bit out, looking through the booklets to see what information Potter had at his disposal. He did not like what he saw and his mouth pulled into a snarl. “These are very dangerous topics for a twenty year old, junior agent to have in his possession! If anyone at all finds out that Agent Potter has such an extensive, in depth knowledge on these topics then our enemies have found our weak link!”

 

“No one in his department knew what he was working on or that he was doing his superior’s work and not his own, I will look into it more and dig deeper to see if there is any whisper that any agent, secretary or cleaner in this building had knowledge of what Agent Potter was doing or suspect at what knowledge he has, until we can be sure, I suggest a subtle twenty-four hour protection detail for Agent Potter, just to be safe.”

 

Fury nodded and breathed in deeply and laced his fingers together tightly. How this had been going on in _his_ agency building for eighteen or so months without his knowledge he had no idea and it made him even angrier. If anything happened to Agent Potter now as a result of this foolish neglect it would fall squarely on his shoulders as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D and he couldn’t let that happen.

A staticky female voice over the intercom on his desk had him mentally preparing himself for battle; he wouldn’t allow his senior agents to exploit his junior agents in such a way. Agent Nasri had endangered Agent Potter’s life and put the security of America under threat and until they knew for certain that Agent Potter wasn’t in any danger, he would have to be put on a full protection detail.

 

‘ _Agent Nasri is in the building Director Fury._ ’ His secretary’s voice came over the intercom.

 

Fury pressed the button on the intercom device and replied to the woman on the other end. “Thank you Heather, have Agent Nasri come immediately to my office.”

 

Fury sat back and calmed himself, he wanted to interrogate the agent first, he wanted to know what the agent thought he was doing passing such folders of information to any junior agent he wished, though what got him more was that Agent Potter had been an _intern_ when he had first started writing these final reports. What sort of bumbling, lazy bastard got his department’s _intern_ to write his final reports on information that had trustingly been handed to him as a long standing senior agent which had been for his eyes only!

A knock on his office door had Fury calling out a neutral grant of permission to enter and Bartholomew Nasri came into the room, all smiles and genial happiness. He had another report booklet in his hands, the same report booklet that Agent Potter had spent the entire night writing out and had left on his superior’s desk that very morning after _sleeping_ under his goddamned _desk_.

 

“This is a surprise Director Fury; usually I leave my final reports with your lovely deputy, Maria.”

 

“You have done such a brilliant job with your reports over the past year that I wanted to congratulate you for taking my advice and putting more effort into them. You obviously took our talk a few years ago to heart, your reports are fuller and contain everything that’s needed and are never a minute late.”

 

Agent Nasri puffed up at the praise and handed the newest final report booklet over and Fury scanned it, sharing a subtle look with Agent Coulson, they again recognised the familiar handwriting of Agent Potter with Agent Nasri’s signature at the bottom of the last page.

 

“I was doing a customary check of all senior Agents files, yours told me that you have a son whose birthday is coming up, is that correct?”

 

“Yes, my youngest son Elijah, he’ll be seven. A right chip off the old block that one.” The man boasted proudly.

 

“If you would like to take his birthday week off, as a reward for all your hard work, you may.”

 

The agent looked rightfully shocked. “I…that would be wonderful Director, thank you.”

 

Fury held back the smirk that wanted to break out as he handed the Agent a pen and a slip of paper. “All you have to do is put your request in writing, we’ll both sign it and then you can hand it into Heather on your way out.”

 

The Agent didn’t even suspect a trap as he wrote out the request and signed his name at the bottom of the slip of paper. Fury took it back and mentally compared the handwriting to the reports. It didn’t even come close to matching the recent reports, but the ones from before Agent Potter arrived, those reports matched the slip.

 

“Tell me Agent Nasri, what do you think of the agents in your department?” Fury asked as he made a show of checking that his personal fountain pen had ink, playing at making polite small talk.

 

“Some of them are pretty useless, lazy the lot of them. They rush through their work just to get home or to the bars.”

 

“What about that new junior agent, Potter? How is he settling in from being an intern?”

 

“Fine as well as I can tell, I don’t know much about him to be honest Sir.”

 

“I bet you wish you did though, don’t you Agent? Every senior agent in this agency wishes to have a classified Omega in their department.” Fury gave a knowing smirk to the flushing agent, who seemed bolstered by the Director’s words.

 

“Well I don’t think there is an agent in this building who hasn’t thought of bending him over his desk, but the effect on me is quite mild Sir. I’m a classified Beta, so his preheat pheromones don’t bother me as much, though I’m sure the Alphas feel it worse, some of them have complained to me that he distracts them from their work, but I can’t do anything about it with the strict agency protocol. Things were better when Omegas weren’t allowed in the workplace, but I suppose there’s nothing anyone can do about the laws that state we have to give them equality.”

 

“But still, he’s a very pretty boy, isn’t he?”

 

“I think it’s the eyes Sir, I’d do him face to face just to see those eyes in the heat of the moment.”

 

Fury nodded as if he were agreeing and actively worked to stop his hand from clenching around the expensive pen as he signed his name. Omegas in his agency were to be treated with more respect than pieces of meat, though he knew it happened elsewhere, no Omega had been forced against their will in his agency, he made sure every single one of them were injected with suppressants, on time and within the medical bay of the agency by his hired and paid nurses, all except for Agent Potter, who, it emerged very soon after his arrival at the agency, was allergic to Tarcolite Ormeloxirone and was only able to take short term tablets, but the boy had not once been late for a single tablet and the nurses all loved him and only had good things to say about him in his medical records as they preened over how polite he was, how charming and cooperative he was and according to one nurse, his soft British accent was swoon inducing.

 

“Wish your son a happy birthday from me Agent Nasri, enjoy your time off.”

 

The man thanked him and left soon after and once the door closed Fury turned to Coulson with an eye spitting fire.

 

“I want that man suspended without pay. He is to be investigated fully and I want his discriminating ass out of my agency.”

 

Coulson nodded his head and made a note of it in a small electronic notepad, made and produced by Stark.

 

“I want Agent Potter in here now; I want him on supervised duties and with a four man, twenty-four hour protection detail effective immediately.”

 

“Who do you want on his protection detail?” Coulson asked.

 

“You for a start, I want you in charge of his protection detail and his supervision, I won’t have anything happen to such a junior agent through the stupidity and bone idleness of a senior agent. I want Agent Barton on his detail and at least two other trusted Agents. I’ll leave that up to you, do you think Barton can handle this?”

 

“I’ve been his handler since he came to this agency Sir, we’ve worked together for years, I can say with certainty that he’ll perform this task adequately, even if he does get bored and restless he will never abandon his detail.”

 

Fury nodded and breathed in deeply; he contacted Heather through the com system and asked her to get Agent Potter into his office immediately. She commed him back ten minutes later, sounding breathless and harried.

 

‘ _I’m sorry Director Fury, Agent Potter is no longer in the building, his colleagues say that their supervisor, Agent Nasri, let him go home._ ’

 

Fury controlled the urge to fire Nasri on the spot and breathed deeply through his nose. “Coulson, find out where he lives, go and get him, we need him under protection until the investigation clears him as being under no threat from enemy forces.”

 

Agent Coulson nodded and slipped from the room calmly, he would pull up Agent Potter’s, really quite bare, file and check his address, he’d find the little Omega Agent, no matter where he was.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry was so immensely happy that his superior had been in such a good mood. He had taken one look at Harry, smiled a really creepy smile at him and told him he could go home.

Harry hadn’t questioned it, though he’d be cautious around his superior from now on, he didn’t trust that smile. He had been in the break room with some colleagues, getting his second coffee of the day when his superior decided to give him the day off, some colleagues, who didn’t know him at all, began accusing him under their breaths of sleeping with the man because he was an Omega. Harry had turned around and told them pointedly that he had worked yesterday when it wasn’t his shift and he was still here today, again even though it wasn’t his shift. That had shut them both up and he had smirked to himself at getting one over on them, though he was put out to remember only then that it wasn’t his day to work, he could have gone home at five that morning after all, he wasn’t due back until the following day.

Harry walked home slowly, but surely, he was too tired to do anything other than plod along, rubbing his itchy eyes and yawn every other step. He bumped into a lamppost and grunted at his unawareness of his own surroundings. He was so going to spend the day in bed catching up on some much needed sleep and curse anyone who tried to disturb him before tomorrow morning at least.

He was just turning onto his street when a black, cloth bag fell over his head and an arm held him tightly around his neck, crushing him to a chest that was so much bigger than him and cutting off his breathing too, he struggled and tried to force his tired body to lash out, but someone picked up his feet and he was in the back of a van before his body could build up any adrenaline to use.

Panic flooded through him, was this a S.H.I.E.L.D test or was it real? Why did these people want him? What were they going to do to him and where were they taking him?

He tried to breathe deeply through the black bag and keep calm as his arms and legs were tied together and bound uncomfortably, likely with rope, it felt too heavy and bulky for it to be plastic ties. This was all bringing back terrible memories of the war that he would have much rathered not be dragged up again, but he tried not to panic, if this was a test, panicking would most obviously cause him to fail. Instead he lay where he had been dumped, he didn’t wriggle, didn’t try to test his bonds, he breathed deeply and calmly, but he couldn’t stop his racing heart or the light quiver that ran through his tensed muscles.

He tried not to make a noise, tried to stay still, but as the powerful van swung wide around a corner and sent Harry sliding into the side of the van, which really hurt, he couldn’t help the pained grunt that slipped out of his throat.

Biting his lip, Harry curled up as much as his bonds allowed him to help protect him more if the van took another wide turn. He tried counting, trying to see how many minutes from his street he was travelling, but he couldn’t concentrate, he could easily make no outward sign of panic, but inside he was a mess, his mind travelling a mile a minute as he tried to figure something, anything, out about why it was him in this van and not someone else.

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

Agent Phil Coulson arrived at Harry’s small suburban house as quickly as he could within the speed limit, he didn’t need to draw any unneeded attention to himself, or to Agent Potter.

He had looked out for the young twenty year old on the streets, but he didn’t know the route the boy usually took home, but it seemed logical to assume that the boy would take the quickest route home in the state of exhaustion he had been in that morning.

He slipped out of the car and everything seemed calm and normal on the street. He made his way to number eighteen and knocked crisply, but loudly on the door. He knocked several times with increasing force and volume, just in case Agent Potter was fast asleep, but when he still didn’t get an answer, he took out a small flip book of tools from his breast pocket and twisted two delicate, metal instruments together, looking up and down the street, as well as at the neighbouring windows critically, before picking the lock on the front door and stepping inside.

He looked around curiously at the bare, impersonal house, but the first thing he noticed that there was a pair of running shoes off to the side of the front door, but not the shoes that Agent Potter had worn to work.

Moving further into the house, he cleared every downstairs room, taking the time to look for the missing pair of shoes, the shoulder bag that Agent Potter used to carry paperwork in, or the jacket he had taken to work.

He did find a very large portrait over the fireplace in the front room, of a very pretty, redheaded woman with Agent Potter’s unique and rather lovely eyes and a tall, handsome man with the same incredibly tousled, jet black hair, which put in his mind that perhaps the constant messy state of Agent Potter’s hair was its natural state and not a trendy statement. These people could only be Agent Potter’s parents, which his file had clinically labelled as deceased.

He moved back out into the hallway, his gun still held tightly, but aimed at the floor as he headed silently up the stairs, perhaps Agent Potter had headed right to his bedroom as soon as he had gotten home before taking off his shoes and jacket, he had been very tired after all.

He cleared the untouched bathroom, two spare, empty rooms and came to the last door on the upper floor, which was ajar. He slipped his hand onto the door handle and threw the door open against the wall, clearing the room with his gun.

He sighed as what had been growing in his heart and mind was confirmed. Agent’s Potter’s bed was made up and not slept in, nothing in the room was out of place and there were no shoes, no satchel, no jacket and no Agent Potter.

Phil sighed and tucked his gun back into his holster and pulled out his phone instead. He called Fury even as his eyes found the photo of a younger looking Agent Potter standing between two people taller than him, a red headed man with freckles and a pretty woman with curly brown hair, they were all smiling, all with arms around one another, and for the first time it made him wonder which one of those two people he would have to contact with the missing persons notification.

 

“ _Fury._ ” The Director answered curtly.

 

“He’s not here Director.” Phil replied softly. “Agent Potter never made it home.”

 

Fury cursed loudly and barked orders to his secretary through his intercom before speaking to him again. “ _The last project given to Nasri was about the Avengers, if that information gets out, along with everything else Potter has been informed of over the last year and a half, this entire country will go down in flames, we need to find Agent Potter as quickly as possible, I’m sending out several Agent’s on scouting missions, I need you back here Coulson, I need you to find out who in this building knew that Potter was doing Nasri’s work.”_

“I’ll be there in twenty minutes Sir.”

 

“ _I don’t need to tell you to keep this all hushed up.”_

 

“Of course not Sir, consider it already done.”

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry tried to tell himself that he wasn’t afraid, but the beating of his heart in his throat didn’t fool him, his stomach twisting and lurching also didn’t help reassure his mind of the repeated mantra that he was fine.

He was tied to a chair, this time with plastic ties which cut tightly into his wrists and ankles and he had been left in the dim, bare room on his own. He had no doubts that he was being closely watched, so he remained outwardly calm, swallowing his fear and panic and making his chest rise and fall slowly, evenly and visibly, calling on his incredibly small and limited amount of Occlumency to keep his strong emotions from being shown outwardly on his face, wishing fervently that he had been more proficient in the mind arts just enough that he could do what Snape had used to and block his emotions off entirely and detach his mind from his body so that he wouldn’t feel a thing; but he would never be that good, he was a very emotional person and not entirely because he was an Omega either. He had always been prone to emotional outbursts, whether it was sadness, anger, misery or rage; he had always had a hard time controlling his stronger emotions.

He focused all of his attention on breathing normally. He had learnt that everything would be fine if he just kept breathing. He could take pain, he could take any words that could be thrown at him, he could take anything they dished out, they couldn’t hurt anyone he loved because he didn’t love anyone who was alive to be hurt, everything would be fine if he just kept breathing.

This was sorely tested when a slender man came into the room with a large man and started asking all sorts of questions about him and his work place, the larger man punching his face and chest every time he didn’t answer, said he didn’t know, or outwardly lied, apparently he had a tell in his eyes when he lied that the large man could see.

He lost all sense of time of how long the large man kept hitting him, going from either of his cheeks to the side of his head with a closed fist, probably hoping that a concussion would help make him more loose lipped, it didn’t but he did have a ringing headache when the man finally left him to bleed in peace.

Harry spat out a mouthful of blood and started breathing deeply and evenly again. Funny how all he had wanted that morning was to crawl into a bed and sleep and now all he wanted was to be anywhere that wasn’t here.

Everyone he had once known were dead, all of his friends and family, everyone he would have even considered telling of his move to America was dead and he was alone in a world that had never felt right to him. He hadn’t made friends at work, he hadn’t made friends outside of work, not even his neighbours knew him past sight. No one would miss him and that thought clenched his gut. No one would be looking for him. He swallowed hard, he couldn’t help it, he hoped that those watching him thought that he was swallowing another mouthful of blood, and not swallowing down all of his hope and despair.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 


	2. Rescue Attempt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: The warning for the violence content has gone up for this chapter, please be aware that the dub-con warning is also for this chapter. There is one scene of dub-con only.
> 
> Last Time
> 
> Everyone he had once known was dead, all of his friends and family, everyone he would have even considered telling of his move to America was dead and he was alone in a world that had never felt right to him. He hadn’t made friends at work, he hadn’t made friends outside of work, not even his neighbours knew him past sight. No one would miss him and that thought clenched his gut. No one would be looking for him. He swallowed hard, he couldn’t help it, he hoped that those watching him thought that he was swallowing another mouthful of blood, and not swallowing down all of his hope and despair.

Chapter Two – Rescue Attempt

 

Nick Fury was determined to see this through to the end. He wanted Agent Potter back in this building as soon as possible. He had checked with the medical bay, Agent Potter was up to date with his tablets, but as they were only temporary, they would not be as effective and every single weekly tablet he missed, increased his chances of falling into his three monthly heat, which was due in just three weeks according to Potter’s medical file. The nurses were already trying to calculate if three missed tablets would be enough to push his body into a heat, or if the nine tablets he had already taken would protect him for this coming heat period.  

Fury hoped that the boy would be protected, it was reasons like these that Omega agents were always to be on time to their med bay appointments for their suppressants, no excuses, and why Omegas were purposefully targeted by enemies and why S.H.I.E.L.D always rushed to get their Omega agents back and out of situations like these; being raped by the enemy was bad enough, being raped while on heat and begging for the people around you to fuck you even though you knew they were the bad guys and that you could potentially get pregnant from said bad guys had to be worse. He had seen it destroy Omega agents over the years and he had sworn that once he became Director of S.H.I.E.L.D that it would never happen again. So far that had been true, until one lazy, moronic senior agent had put a junior Omega agent in life threatening danger for his own selfish, ease of life.

Senior agents were trained to handle such situations of capture, torture and intense interrogation, junior agents weren’t because they didn’t go out to do field work and usually weren’t targeted because they weren’t put in a position to have such knowledge that enemies would find useful. Someone had known Agent Potter had information he wasn’t supposed to, someone in this building had sold the junior agent out.

The several agents he had pulled into this operation, some of his most trusted and specialised agents at that, were debriefed and sent out to subtly probe and search for anything that could lead them to Agent Potter. He had already set Agent Coulson on searching the agency internally for anyone who could have known Agent Potter was privy to information he shouldn’t have.

He slumped behind his desk and rubbed his face, being careful not to dislodge his eye patch. Agent Nasri had been pulled back in for questioning once it was confirmed that Agent Potter was missing, Fury wasn’t ruling the senior agent out of his part in Agent Potter’s kidnapping, the man’s actions had ultimately led to this situation and he wanted to know what that man had been thinking letting his intern, and then his most junior agent, look through, memorise and then write up all final reports of such secretive, sensitive information. He could only hope that Potter had been taken by amateurs and they found him quickly, or they may not want to find Agent Potter by the time they finally managed to track him down.

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

Harry wasn’t sure how much longer he could outlast this treatment. His sleep deprived mind was confusing everything and muddling thoughts and memories up. He had been exhausted before he had been snatched off the street, but that had been nothing compared to now. Every time he let his eyes slip closed and fell into a brief, restless sleep, he was woken up painfully, and loudly, only a few moments later.

Perhaps they thought they could get something out of him if they deprived him of enough sleep and food, but he was Harry Potter, he would not endanger other people, especially not an entire country, for any reason.   

He had been moved from the chair as hitting him repeatedly had not yielded his captors any results. He was now in a different, darker room, hanging from his wrists, his shoulders pulled back and together excruciatingly and his toes were the only thing keeping all the pressure from ripping his arms out of his shoulder joints.

His captors had moved on from hits and smacks to using knives and blades and his chest was a mess of red and inflamed cuts and half scabbed and fresh lines, rivulets of dried blood pulling his skin irritatingly all the way down to his thighs.

He refused to cry, even if he couldn’t always stop the pained gasps as the cold steel bit into his skin and the sensitive nerves underneath. He couldn’t always stop the jerking reaction as he was cut suddenly and unexpectedly and he had only screamed once, when the hard faced, emotionless man had sliced through his very sensitive nipple, which was more painful due to his suppressed preheat period. His nipples always became so very sensitive on his preheat period.

He had no idea how long he had been here, he had no sense of time, no way to tell if it was day or night, it was always dark in this room and the only light he saw was when his captors came to ask him more questions and to torture him again.

He breathed in deeply, even though it hurt his chest and pulled on his scabs, he held the breath before letting it out slowly, everything would be fine as long as he kept breathing. He just needed to keep breathing, everything else didn’t matter.

He had been asked all sorts of questions, from himself, to S.H.I.E.L.D, to the Director Nick Fury, who he had never in his life even seen, to Hydra, to the Avengers. They knew what topics of information he had, but they didn’t know anything about the topics, and they wanted to know, they were using him to get the knowledge, but if they had thought him some weak, snivelling, twenty year old Omega who would piss himself and cave at the first sign of violence, they had the wrong man.

The door opened and Harry tried to make absolutely no sign of fear or awareness that his tormentors were back. He breathed in, held it and then let it out; he focused so hard on repeating the action that the touch to his permanently scarred left hip had him sucking in a deeper, sharper breath.

 

“Let’s hope you are in a more talkative mood this time, hmmm. Where are the Hydra weapons that S.H.I.E.L.D is in possession of?” A voice further away asked him softly.

 

It was always this way. A man would question him from the door and when he didn’t answer, the man in front of him would torture him.

 

“You don’t need to put yourself through this little Omega. Just tell us what we want to know, what we know you know, and all this can end.”

 

Harry made no move, no sound, he just carried on breathing. When the white hot tip of something was pressed into the skin of his bare leg he couldn’t help the automatic tensing of muscles as his body danced with the pain. He locked his jaw and throat to stop any noise from escaping and when the tip of the white hot something was taken from his skin, the area throbbed with his erratic heartbeat and Harry sucked in a hissed breath through his teeth. Just breathe.

 

“Perhaps something easier. What is the formula for the super serum used on Mister Steven Rogers, codename Captain America?”

 

Harry relaxed his body and tried to ignore the throbbing pain in his leg, he sucked in a breath, held it as long as he could before exhaling.

The white hot tip pressed into his inside thigh of the opposite leg, he wasn’t expecting it on the opposite leg and it made a pained sound slip from his throat, which turned into a hysterical scream as it was pressed harder into his flesh, digging in deeper, harder, like the torturer was trying to shove it through his leg to the other side.

The tool was removed but the pain lingered, throbbing and searing and he hopped in his restrains, his bare toes curling hard into the concrete floor as his knees threatened to give out on him.

 

“Come now, surely you don’t want this treatment to last? It’s only going to get worse. Perhaps now you want to tell us your name?”

 

“Charlie.” Harry croaked through his parched, dry throat.

 

The tool was instantly pressed into his stomach and he howled. He couldn’t help but scream as his knees collapsed on him and the jerk on his shoulders rolled his eyes back into his head.

 

“Now now, do try not to lie to us little Omega. Koli always knows when people are lying to him.”

 

Harry quivered in his restraints and wished he could just pass out. He started breathing again, in and out, it was easy enough to do and simple for his dilapidating mind to remember, it was one of the most primal, instinctual actions of the body, everything would be fine if he just kept breathing.

 

“We are running out of patience with you, little Omega.”

 

Harry ignored the man and carried on breathing slowly and as evenly as he could. The white hot tool pressed into his side and his body wrenched under its touch, but Harry didn’t make a sound, even as his head fell forward until his chin hit his abused chest. He sucked in deeper breaths and remembered his times under the Cruciatus Curse. This pain was nothing compared to the curse and that knowledge helped in some small way as the tool was removed from his skin once again.

 

“Where is the undercover S.H.I.E.L.D base watching the shipment of nuclear armaments located?” 

 

It would have been so easy to just open his mouth and tell them. All he had to do was tell them that the undercover base was so close to the armaments warehouse that the S.H.I.E.L.D agents watching from the inside could see into the armaments building and all his pain would go away, but it wouldn’t. He was already hurt, already in agony and if he told them then people were going to die, the agents assigned to the undercover base would all die and he knew every single one of their names, even if he didn’t know them by face. He couldn’t let all of those people die just because of him, it wasn’t a fair trade.

The white hot tool was pressed and held tightly to his front shoulder and Harry’s head snapped to the left away from the pain and he gritted his teeth against it. He could do this. He couldn’t let other people die just to save himself some pain. He would never be able to live with himself, wouldn’t be able to look at himself in the mirror, if he caved in and told them where the undercover base was and allowed twenty-seven other people to die in his place he would never be able to look himself in the eye ever again, he would be so ashamed, he’d feel vile and disgusted with himself for allowing those twenty-seven people to die just so that he could live. He couldn’t do it. He continued to breathe.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

They couldn’t find a trace of him. It had been two weeks and they couldn’t find the people who had taken Agent Potter. Phil felt guilty, he couldn’t help it, he just did. Agent Potter had been sat right opposite him the morning he had been taken. He had seen up close how tired and unwell the young man had looked.

He had seen on the security cameras as he was looking into why a junior agent would still be in the building after hours that Agent Potter was always very tired. In the short week that he had been observing the twenty year old, Agent Potter had had increasingly late nights as the due date for the final report came closer and he observed that the young man often and regularly forgot to eat anything, on the rare times he brought sandwiches with him, he took a few bites out of it before forgetting all about it, other times he worked right through breakfast, lunch and dinner with no snacks, the only thing that passed through his lips were uncountable cups of coffee and occasionally the end of his pen. How no one noticed was unfathomable. How he hadn’t noticed sooner was weighing very heavily on his already burdened mind.

Director Fury had called in the Avengers; it was at the point where they couldn’t not call them in as Agent Potter had had inside information on every single one of them and as the Avengers team as a whole. They were in danger as well if the information S.H.I.E.L.D held on all of them got into the wrong hands.

 

“So why are we here?” Stark asked lazily, lounging in his chair, hands behind his head.

 

“It could be an emergency Tony.” Steve coached disapprovingly.

 

“It is an emergency.” Fury bit out, he had been getting increasingly bad tempered as each day passed and yielded no results.

 

“Where is the emergency? We didn’t see any invading aliens or mass destruction as we made our way here.”

 

“Not that sort of emergency. One of our junior agents was compromised by a superior agent, who handed said agent, who is only twenty years old, top secret, very delicate information, including topics on S.H.I.E.L.D, covert operations, Hydra, and the Avengers, including all of your personal information and what makes you part of the Avengers team, including, but not limited to, the schematics for the Ironman suit and the arc reactor, the super serum for Captain America, the radiation treatment that made the Hulk and information on Asgard and Asgardians along with their form of transport with the Bi-frost.”

 

“And now this junior agent has run off with all of this information?” Tony demanded.

 

“No. This junior agent has been snatched off the street before we could get them into S.H.I.E.L.D protection, which was going to include Coulson and Barton along with two others.”

 

Clint Barton, codename Hawkeye, sat up straighter at hearing that and listened closer as his mind was now interested in the person who would have been on his detail.

 

“Right, I know there’s something else other than what you’re saying.”

 

“This agent happens to be an Omega with a potential heat period in approximately one week from today.”

 

“Isn’t it mandatory for all S.H.I.E.L.D Omegas to have the injection?” Natasha asked curiously.

 

“Unfortunately a near fatal allergy to Tarcolite Ormeloxirone prevents this agent from being able to have the injected suppressant.”

 

“That only leaves the temporary tablets.” Tony said, his face pulled in thought. “Even the oral liquid uses Tarcolite Ormeloxirone as the active ingredient. Omegas on the tablets have to take them at the same time every single week, one missed pill could ruin over two months of carefully taken tablets. Hell, one _late_ tablet could ruin over two months of taking them.”

 

“I know.” Fury almost snarled, his hands balled into fists.

 

“So a twenty year old Omega who is going to go onto a heat period in a week has the information that could destroy this country, take the entire Avengers team down and ruin S.H.I.E.L.D? We’re doomed.” Tony declared simply.

 

“That twenty year old Omega has been missing for over two weeks.” Phil cut in sharply, unable to help himself. “We have still to receive any whisper that anyone knows what was in those files and all our enemies have been quiet.”

 

“They’ve been missing for two weeks?” Bruce asked horrified. Omegas were not built to withstand two weeks of violence, mistreatment and, at an educated guess, torture.

 

“Two weeks and three days.”

 

“So the Omega has missed two pills and is going to miss a third?” Tony questioned softly. “That heat isn’t going to be potential, it’ll be a certainty. One late pill has thrown Omegas into heat before now.”

 

“There have been recorded cases of Omegas missing four tablets and not having a heat period.” Fury countered, wishing fervently that Agent Potter was one of the latter cases.

 

“Those are usually older Omegas who are coming to the end of their breeding cycles anyway.” Tony argued. “We’ve got to find this kid and fast, preferably before their heat hits. I’m not going to fuck any Omega and have my ass sued when they cry rape as I was trying to rescue them from enemies.”

 

“If the people who have the Omega want the information badly, there may not be anything to be rescued.”

 

“Thank you for that addition Agent Romanoff.” Fury bared his teeth. “Our latest Intel puts a shoe that Agent Potter was wearing the same morning of the kidnapping in the middle of nowhere, our Agents believe that he could still be in a hundred mile radius.”

 

“Are you sure it’s his?” Clint couldn’t help asking, even if his handler, Phil, gave him a stern look. He stumbled slightly over the masculine pronoun.

 

“Forensics have confirmed that the shoe in question belongs to Agent Potter.”

 

“Right, who are we looking for here; do we get a description of him?” Tony asked, also picking up on the masculine pronouns. “Or are we supposed to go in blind and save every person we meet?”

 

Fury turned to the screen behind him and picked up a projector button and pressed it, watching with a heavy heart as a much younger looking, happier and healthier Agent Potter popped up onto the screen.

 

“Holy fuck. Every Alpha in a thousand mile radius is going to want that when he goes onto heat.” Tony said in admiration of the photo on the screen, ignoring the disapproving looks he was getting with a practiced ease.

 

“Meet Harry James Potter, twenty years old and one of S.H.I.E.L.D’s most junior agents. He was an intern last year for a long standing senior agent, who had retired from field work to supervise the department that Agent Potter joined eighteen months ago.”

 

“When did he become an Agent?” Tony asked curiously.

 

“Nine months ago, his superior noted that he showed high levels of intelligence, a diligence in work ethic and an enthusiasm next to none, said he was wasted as an intern.”

 

“Would this be the same superior who has now endangered him, us and all of America?”

 

“That would be the one.” Fury admitted grudgingly.

 

“Where is this Agent now?” Steve asked calmly, but his blue eyes showed steel.

 

“Down in interrogation with three Agents who are grilling him for his actions and for any information he might have, we’re not ruling him out of his part in Agent Potter’s kidnap, we want a list of names of people he even mentioned Agent Potter to.”

 

“Does anyone know he has the information?” Bruce asked softly.

 

“Not as far as we can tell. Agent Coulson has been subtly inquiring about it over the last two weeks and has found nothing that stands out or points a finger at any one person.”

 

“I want all the security footage.” Tony stated. “I’ll watch it and see if anything stands out.”

 

“Agent Coulson and two others have already watched the footage Stark; no one ever went into Agent Potter’s office besides Agent Potter and his superior, Agent Nasri.”

 

“I want the footage from his office as well, but I’m more interested in the other agents in his department.”

 

Fury sighed and nodded, letting Stark plug something in to access the security footage, he’d probably only break in and download it all anyway. This way was faster.

He was forced to watch as Stark flitted through days and weeks and months of systematic abuse in the workplace, was forced to watch once again as Agent Potter was overworked, not eating, drinking far too much coffee for a boy of his young age, being shouted at by Nasri several times a day for doing the work he was supposed to be doing himself, either ignored or treated with contempt by his fellow agents when he emerged from his office to refresh his coffee and the several times he pitifully crawled under his desk to sleep for an hour before getting up and starting again on his very heavy workload. It was a disgrace that no one had noticed.

 

“None of you noticed this going on?” Stark scoffed as his sharp eyes scanned the footage that was being played at double speed.

 

“I noticed the week before he went missing.” Coulson sighed. “I should have caught it sooner, but Agent Potter hid everything so well. I only clicked on when I was in the building early to debrief several Agents for an early morning raid and I happened to be walking past his office as he was crawling from under his desk. No junior Agent should have such a heavy workload as to keep them in the building overnight. It was odd, so I looked into it.”

 

“And found a year and a half’s worth of mishandling and exploitation.” Clint said, looking at his handler curiously. He had never seen the man more upset and wondered if there was more than what was being said.

 

“I was right there. He sat opposite me in the break room just an hour before he went missing. I was watching him as he finished his work, he checked his watch before sliding under his desk with his jacket, I knew he would be tired so I went and got him a coffee as well as some blueberry muffins, he hadn’t eaten anything in at least two days.”

 

“So as well as being an Omega with a heat approaching, he was also sleep deprived and hungry _before_ he was kidnapped?” Natasha raised a single eyebrow.

 

“It sounds hopeless, but I want him back in whatever state.” Fury cut in adamantly. “I won’t abandon any of my Agents in this sort of situation.”

 

“Of course we’ll help.” Steve said. “I’m sure between us we can find him and soon enough to do some damage control too.”

 

“I really am going to need all the footage if we’re going to do what Capt. says.” Stark murmured as he started downloading all of the footage with just a few typed keys to his personal database.

 

Fury hoped that they could help find the missing Agent. He hadn’t had a good night’s sleep since Agent Potter went missing; he needed the Agent to be alive and as undamaged as could be realistically expected.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry wanted to die. His body was a mess, his head wasn’t much better and the endless days of no sleep had him acting like some sort of mindless drone. His breathing hitched on every inhale and stuttered out wetly with every exhale, his arms had long since gone numb from being suspended over his head for so long and he couldn’t even feel his fingers anymore. He hung limply in the ropes that held him from a solid metal loop screwed into the ceiling.

His one leg jumped convulsively out of his control. The burns that now covered most of that leg had affected his nerves; he could only hope it wasn’t permanent damage as his knee jerked, again completely out of his control.

He let his eyes slip open, he had long since gotten used to the almost pitch blackness of the room and he could see vague shapes and outlines in the dark, he could see he was standing on his abused toes still, how was anyone’s guess, but likely had something to do with sheer stubbornness. He could see how his one ankle was twisted wrong, how his foot now stood sideways from his body from where it had been broken early on, when he had kicked his abuser in anger for putting the white hot tool he used to burn him so very close to his groin.

He took comfort from the small fact that he hadn’t been castrated yet, partially or otherwise and that he still had all of his limbs and digits, even if he did have a broken ankle, even though he couldn’t feel his bloodless fingers, he knew he still had them along with all ten of his toes and all thirty-two of his teeth. He hoped that this lasted.

His vocal tormentor had lamented the fact that they might have to start breaking bone soon enough if he didn’t start answering his questions, because he wasn’t responding to any ‘traditional’ torture methods, like blades and burns. Harry wondered idly how much breaking bones hurt compared to having them removed and then regrown in a twenty-four hour time period.

His mind flitted from this thought to thoughts of Ron, which led to Hermione and the other Weasleys, who had given their lives for him to make the world a better place for people they didn’t know and probably weren’t half as grateful enough for what had been sacrificed. So many lives, so many of his loved ones dead. All dead. Why couldn’t he join them? What was tying him to life, what was keeping him in this world, what did he have to live for now?

His head flopped to the side as his body tried to shut down once again to get some rest, but a moment later a sound like an air horn jerked him painfully back into awareness, they hadn’t once stopped watching him, he hadn’t once been able to catch just a minute of sleep.

He could feel his heart beating several times faster than normal, could almost feel his stress and blood pressure rise each day as his paranoid mind produced hallucinations so real that he sometimes talked to them and envisioned them talking back to him.

His stomach, now completely concave, his skin clinging to his ribs like a Clingfilm covering, had long since stopped grumbling in hunger. His captors hadn’t given him anything to eat since he had been taken; they only allowed him sips of water through a bendy straw, telling him that if he didn’t drink it then they would force him to. Harry allowed them this small control, knowing that if they shoved a tube down his throat then he would lose any and all control of how much, and exactly what, he drank.

His leg jerked again and a spasm of something racked his whole body, it was likely pain from his sudden movement, but his entire body was in so much agony that he had become so used to after so long that he just didn’t register it as pain any longer.

His head dropped down onto his chest, his burning, red rimmed eyes closing, just for a moment, his body slumping in his restraints and then he was jumping again as the loud blast of noise woke him, jolting him into making more sudden movements, which racked his body with a full body quiver.

He swallowed around his dry tongue, his mouth long since dried and rubbery; they hadn’t let him have a drink today. Maybe this was some new form of torture, or maybe they had gotten so fed up of his continued silence that they were just going to watch him die from dehydration instead.

The door creaked open on its rusty hinges and Harry barely heard it over the conversation he was having internally with himself, or maybe he was speaking aloud, he didn’t know anymore.

 

“You amaze me little Omega.” His tormentor spoke softly from the door. “Before you, I would have said adamantly that no Omega could withstand such treatment for longer than a few days, but you are almost on your third week in our expert care and you have not told us a thing besides your babbled daydreams and what I suspect are hallucination influenced conversations, I would be impressed if we did not need the information you hold so desperately. Our bosses are not best pleased with us and our lack of results, so let’s step it up a bit shall we?”

 

Harry did nothing but suck in a deep breath, trying to ignore his heart, which beat uncontrollably fast. His mind flitting back to the broken bones conversation and the one before that when his tormentor had told him that he was going to let every man in this compound rape him as soon as his heat hit. If he really had been here for almost three weeks then they wouldn’t have long to wait.

The knife was a sudden blow into the once meaty, but now shrunken flesh of his side, just above his hipbone. He jerked in his restraints, more from surprise than at the pain, which had become almost familiar to him than the memory of the back of his hand, with the neat, cursive letters that formed out the sentence ‘I must not tell lies’, a souvenir from Delores Umbridge. What right did that woman have to still be alive when there were people, so much better, so much kinder and so much brighter than her all dead?

 

“So it is true, you are becoming desensitised to pain. Perhaps something that your body can’t ignore then.”

 

‘Please don’t take my toes.’ Harry thought right before he screamed, roughly and tiredly, as something small and grainy, like sand, was rubbed harshly over the fresh knife wound.

 

“That’s better, it’s been a while since we last heard you scream, I had missed that sound, I’m very happy to have it back. Now, how does Anthony Stark, codename Ironman, make that curious arc reactor in his chest work?”

 

“Magic.” Harry answered groggily.

 

Another knife wound, followed by the grainy substance had Harry howling as his head thrashed from side to side.

 

“We have been through all of this before little Omega, just tell us what we want to know and all of this will end!”

 

This was the first time Harry had heard his tormentor raise his voice and he wondered what was different to all the times before. What had changed to put that hint of stress in his captor’s voice, the slight note of rising panic, what was different?

A slice to his already cut and scabbed chest and the grainy substance being rubbed all over, getting into half healed cuts as well as the fresh ones and into the open burn wounds had him screaming his throat hoarse and dancing in agony, his toes curling into the concrete floor.

 

“You’re not getting out of here alive any other way; why not tell us what we want you to and save yourself the pain?”

 

Harry breathed raggedly, fighting back the urge to sob or to scream again, but he didn’t answer. Another slice, to his leg this time before the sandy granules were scrubbed into his skin and into his open cuts and burns and he screamed again.

 

“What is your name?”

 

His torturer cut his belly in a long line, almost from hipbone to hipbone before getting a fistful of whatever he was using before using the heel of his hand to force the stuff into the long wound, forcing it into the cut over and over and Harry thrashed in his restraints, forcing his torturer to wrap an arm around his thighs to keep him still as he rubbed more sandy stuff into his belly wound.

 

“Harry! Harry, Harry, Harry!” He screamed desperately and a tad hysterically as his body clenched, writhed and then tried to curl in on itself.

 

The hands slipped from around him and he hung limply, sobbing onto himself as his chin rested on his chest.

 

“Hmm, Harry. A lovely name for a little Omega. Who knew that finely ground rock salt would have had such an effect on you? It seems we have found your weakness after all. Give him a reward Koli.”

 

Harry fully expected more salt, but what he got was a straw shoved into his mouth. He cracked his eyes open to see the clear fluid. He took a tiny sip and when the liquid had no taste, he suckled greedily. Really, even if it was poison, what did he care anymore? But he had had caution drilled into him and it wasn’t reassuring to know that the strongest truth potion, Veritaserum, was colourless, odourless and looked very much like water. Though where Muggles would get such a heavily controlled potion from in the first place was anyone’s guess.

 

“Now that we have made a break through Harry, perhaps you are in a talking mood today.”

 

“Please let me sleep.” Harry begged, he thought it had been internally, but apparently it hadn’t been.

 

“Well, you are in a talking mood! Brilliant, perhaps today can go that much smoother. You can sleep after you have answered all of my questions Harry, I promise.”

 

Harry sobbed. He didn’t want more salt, now that he had caved once, they would carry on using it and he cursed his idiocy and his weakness, he shouldn’t have caved in. He wasn’t going to talk, not about anything that put anyone other than himself in danger, they could have his name, he was going to die anyway, but by giving them that small inch, they now expected to seize a mile from him and he wouldn’t let it happen.

 

“Now Harry, where is the undercover S.H.I.E.L.D base located?”

 

It always came back to that one question. That one question was asked more than any other, it was that question that they wanted answered more than any other, even if they did want all of them answered at some point, they wanted that one first. Probably why they had snatched him first and foremost, before they realised he had more information on things that he shouldn’t have. He was going to give his supervisor a right piece of his mind if he ever got out of here. He was going to curse the lazy fucker into a puddle of goo as soon as he was recovered and had collected his wand from the safe in his house.

 

“Oh Harry, I’m so disappointed.” His tormentor crooned.

 

His torturer sliced his chest and rubbed a fistful of salt into the wound harshly and he screamed as the salt caught in his partially healed nipple cut, the sound stronger, louder and healthier now due to his cup of water which had rehydrated his mouth and throat.

Harry sniffed hard and choked out an exhale of air. He couldn’t last much longer, his mind was playing tricks on him, making him see things that weren’t there, his body was crippled, broken, he just wanted to sleep, even if that sleep came in the permanent form of death.

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

Steve Rogers took the point of the attack, leading his team into the reinforced building in the middle of an abandoned, dilapidated factory, in the arse end of nowhere. He had several S.H.I.E.L.D agents milling around with his team, they had air reinforcements, ground reinforcements a bit further back and Fury on earwigs fitted into all of their ears, he commed his team just to make sure they were working still and after receiving an affirmative from all of them, he signed for them to move into position.

They knew the missing Agent was in the building, their Intel told them that it was the only part of this factory that was even remotely safe to stay in and he had sent Hawkeye to confirm that there were people inside, the nimble, sharp eyed archer was perched on the roof of the building, having climbed up expertly to find a skylight to look through because all of the windows were boarded up.

 

 _‘Capt., I can hear screaming inside.’_ Clint commed him through the earwig.

 

Steve wanted to sigh in relief that the young Agent they were here to rescue was even still alive, but he was torn between knowing he was alive and knowing that him screaming likely meant that he was currently being tortured.

 

 _‘It’s getting worse; I think they know we’re here.’_ Clint said lowly and urgently.

 

 _‘Can you smell any pheromones?’_ Tony’s voice came over the earwigs.

 

_‘Negative, can’t smell a damn thing only sulphur from the factory behind me, the wind’s blowing too strongly to pick anything else up.’_

 

“That’s good.” Steve remarked. “He might not have gone onto his heat period, he might have been protected.”

 

 _‘Just because birdbrain can’t smell him doesn’t mean anything!’_ Tony snapped. _‘Sulphur is a very overpowering scent and Potter might be in a controlled room with no windows to leak his scent.’_

 

Steve sighed. He had tried endlessly to try and stop Tony from name calling and teasing the other Avengers, especially Bruce, but he had come to learn that it was all inflected with affection and it was just Tony’s way of being Tony, he had shown countless times how much he cared for them in his own way over the last few years and Steve had learned to put up with it, just like Thor’s eating habits, Natasha’s wounded rhino like snoring and Clint’s very heart wrenching habit of doing stupid, dangerous stunts when bored. He did see himself as a Father to them all, because they made it so easy when they all acted like children, with the exception of Bruce, who was so level headed and controlled that Steve’s heart ached for him.

 

 _‘Will you stop your quibbling and get on with it!’_ Director Fury’s voice matched his namesake as he snapped at them over the com devices.

 

Steve slipped around the discarded crate he had hunched behind and moved closer, gesturing to Clint to stay where he was, of course the man never liked staying still, so he had slipped down off of the roof and began scouring for an entrance to use before Steve could so much as open his mouth.

 

 _‘Seems like the only entrance is being guarded from the outside as well as the inside.’_ Clint informed them _‘The door is on the back of the building, facing away from you and out towards the abandoned factory complex.’_

 

“Where are you Clint? You know I don’t like you being out of my sight.” Steve murmured as he tried to move into a position that allowed him to see Clint, to no avail.

 

_‘I’m fine daddy. I’m going to get back up on the roof and go through a vent, see if I can’t scout around a bit more.’_

“I don’t like that idea.” Steve countered.

 

 _‘We’re never going to get in otherwise.’_ Clint answered softly. _‘I can still hear him screaming Capt. He hasn’t stopped.’_

 

Steve swallowed hard. “Okay, do what you can, we’ll see what we can do from out here, try to draw the guards away before getting inside. We might lose communication when you go into the vents.”

 

_‘I know, but that should only be when I’m in the vents, unless the walls are double thick with steel and concrete. We’ll find out.’_

 

Steve felt his heart clench as he watched a member of his team slip back up onto the roof like liquid, he never got over how easy Clint made climbing things seem, even seemingly impossibly things, but it was when Clint reported his position for the last time, and a few minutes later Steve tried to contact him, only to hear nothing.

 

“Right, we’ve lost Clint, we need to get those outside guards away from the door so we can get in, though we need to be aware that Clint thinks that there are guards inside the door as well, they might be there to ambush us once we gain entrance.”

 

Steve received affirmative responses from his team and held his shield tighter, he moved more to his right and slipped around a large piece of factory debris and wondered who would get the guards first, Natasha or Thor.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Clint Barton slipped as silently as he could through the vents, he couldn’t crouch and move, his footfalls would make too much noise, instead he had to lie on his belly and crawl using just his arms to move himself, keeping his feet elevated so that they wouldn’t scrape across the metal vent, lest he be found.

He had tried to communicate with his team, but he only received static. The screaming was worse from inside the building. Long, ragged, helpless screams that wrenched every single protective, Alpha string in his body. He wanted to rush to Harry and help him, but it would likely get them both killed sooner if he did.

He followed the screams to as close to the source as he could get, looking through each grate as he came across them, so he could scan for threats and so he wouldn’t be seen by anyone below looking up. He came across no one, there was no one in the hallways, they all seemed to be preparing for the Avengers outside of the building, not thinking that one could get inside their secure building.

He stopped at one grate where the screaming came through the loudest and he looked around as much as he could, there was no one. He slipped the grate off quickly and quietly and again checked for people, nothing. He poked his head down and checked more thoroughly and there was again no one near him.

He righted himself before dropping down to the floor where his com immediately burst into life in his ear making him want to rip it out at the sudden assaulting agony of noise. It seemed his teammates were having no luck trying to get in through the only door and Tony was asking for permission to blow a hole in the wall.

 

“Bad idea Tony, there are gas pipes running along all the inside walls, the entire building will blow.” Clint hissed, putting his back to a wall and looking up and down in case anyone heard him and came running to investigate.

 

 _‘Clint! Where are you?’_ Steve asked, relief thick in his voice.

 

If he didn’t know any better, Clint would have thought that the Captain like liked him, but he did know better and he knew that Steve looked out for all of them, but as he was always the scout who came in first and did stupid, dangerous stuff like crawling into a hostile building on his own, Steve was often more worried about him than the others.

 

“Inside Capt., right where Harry is if the volume of screaming is any indication. If I can get in and get us both back out through the vents I’ll do it, or maybe find a window.” He added as an afterthought as the idea of dragging the small, damaged body of a twenty year old Omega who had undergone over three weeks of continuous torture through those small vents rubbed him the wrong way.

 

He started moving, feeling exposed and vulnerable where he was and tried to find the room Harry was in, without opening the wrong door, if he did and there were hostiles behind it he was screwed.

 

 _‘Can you smell any pheromones?’_ Tony asked over the com and Clint would have rolled his eyes if he dared.

 

“Negative Tony. This place smells like bleach and like too many men living together for too long.”

 

 _‘Chinese food, stale sweat and mould then.’_ Natasha answered and Clint snorted before he could help himself.

 

“About right.” He answered as he slipped down the corridor and looked either way, before moving towards the sound of high pitched keening. “I think I’ve found the right room.”

 

 _‘Be careful Clint!’_ Steve told him with a grunt as he did something that forced him to exhale heavily.

 

“My guard’s up Captain, promise.”

 

Clint tried to listen under the screaming and keening, but he couldn’t hear anyone else. He tried the heavy steel door and to his surprise it was unlocked, but it was obvious why when he pushed it open and saw the tiny body suspended from the ceiling, there was no way Harry was getting away from that.

 

“Holy fuck!” He exclaimed wide eyed, not even breathing as the light from the corridor illuminated the state of the body before him. “Get the medical team set up and waiting. Incredibly heavy, sustained damage, the amount of blood is very worrying, he’s still conscious at the moment; the only obvious broken bone is the right ankle. I’m not getting him out through the vents; I’ll have to find a window.”

 

 _‘Do what you have to; just get him out Agent Barton!’_ Fury yelled into his ear, the man had become almost manic in the search for the young Agent, taking it heavily and personally that one of his senior Agents was responsible for this boy being here, in this situation.

 

“Will do, Sir.”

 

Clint stepped into the room and rushed to Harry, only to stop suddenly as a wave of pheromones hit him full blast along with the cool wave of air conditioning. He had made a grievous error in judgement. Harry wasn’t screaming and keening because he was in pain, he was doing it because he was in heat and no one was taking care of his needs. The industrial air conditioner was sucking the air out of the room and recycling it into cold air to push back into the same room, but it had also been sucking up Harry’s heat pheromones so he couldn’t smell them, it was only when he had stepped into the room, moved closer to Harry and into the path of the air conditioner that he could smell them, but it was too late as he felt his pupils blow wide as his own pheromones leaked out to mingle with Harry’s.

He approached the boy and touched him gently, getting a soft coo back, he picked up Harry’s head gently and looked at him, broken, battered, bleeding and couldn’t remember anyone being so gorgeous when in such a state as those emerald eyes locked onto his, still bright, perhaps a bit too bright as he felt the fever warm cheeks under his palms.

 

“Please.” Harry begged him softly. “Please.”

 

“I’ll take care of you.” Clint promised, not even thinking that the Omega meant anything other than taking care of his heat.

 

Clint touched the naked, painfully aroused body, not even seeing the bruises, the red raw, inflamed cuts and slices or the horrific way the discoloured skin clung to bone. All he saw was an Omega in heat; it was all he smelled and all he heard was the little Omega begging for him.

He moved around the small body and touched his back, slipping a hand down to cup a bum cheek. He didn’t like it like this. He liked to fight for his Omegas, not just take them, but the pheromones were so strong, so overpowering this close up, that he couldn’t move away and instead he popped open the buttons on his trousers, being mindful of the straps that supported his leg muscles and the belt that held the quiver of specialised arrows and the bottom of his backup quiver.

 

“Please.” Harry repeated again, shifting restlessly in his bonds.

 

“I know. It’ll be okay. I’ll take care of you.” Clint promised again as he pulled himself out of his trousers and touched himself lightly to ease the build-up of tension, the first joining was always harsh and fast.

 

Clint lined himself up and pushed into Harry, hating that he couldn’t fight to prove his worth to his little Omega, but promised he’d do so later, to prove that he deserved to mount him.

Harry’s spine bowed back into him, his head coming to rest on his shoulder. Clint wrapped his bare arms around the Omega, resting him against his vest, making sure nothing was digging into him, hating that he wasn’t naked also as he moved within the keening Omega, trying to bend him forward in the illusion of mounting him, but the ropes holding him upright wouldn’t let him move that far so he had to snarl and make do.

Clint’s blood ran hotter as the Omega moaned and panted for him, keening as a hard stroke caught his prostate, his knees shaking as Clint picked up pace and licked at his neck, the strong taste of salt had him pulling his head back and grimacing, before moving back to suck a mark, any mark, onto his Omega, ignoring the horrible taste.

 

 _‘Clint, where are you?!’_ Someone screamed into his ear. He hated that it was disturbing his mating to an Omega. _‘Clint report!’_ , _‘Barton, where are you, where is Agent Potter?’_ , _‘Clint?!’_

 

His orgasm pulled at the edges of his body, his belly filling with a warm, familiar heat and he sucked harder at the Omega’s neck, determined to get a mark on there without biting him. His Omega didn’t need any more wounds; he would mate his little Omega and then take care of his little body.

When his Omega pushed back, however minimally, onto him and keened higher, Clint lost it and he orgasmed hard, he was surprised his knot didn’t form only for as long as it took his mind to come back and for him to realise what the fuck he had done to a torture victim he was supposed to be rescuing. He felt sick.

His knot hadn’t formed because the smaller part of his brain had known that he wasn’t in a safe place, though the bigger part of his brain, which had been with his cock, had snarled at seeing his seed leaking out of the Omega’s body. He wanted to cry at what he had done.

He cleaned the boy up as best as he could, both his own seed and Harry’s as he had orgasmed himself, against his own belly, before he tucked himself back into his trousers and cut the ropes holding Harry up and caught him in a hold over his shoulder. The Alpha in him snarled at the naked body that no one else was allowed to see, but his rational mind knew that he had to get them out of here, right now.

He got out of the room, hoping against hope that Harry’s heat pheromones didn’t kick in again before they escaped, the orgasm should have taken the edge off it for a while, but he hadn’t knotted, so he didn’t know if Harry would accept it as a successful mating or not.

The screaming in his ear for him to report distracted him and he cursed them all, he was getting a headache from them.

 

“Shut up!” He hissed viciously at them.

 

_‘Clint! Where are you? What happened?’_

“Where am I? Where do you think I am?! Where are you?!”

 

 _‘We can’t get in, they’ve got explosives rigged to the walls and they keep firing at us.’_ Steve told him, his voice thick with stress.

 

 _‘Where are you Clint, are you okay?’_ Natasha asked, her own voice heavy and breathless.

 

“Still in the building. The steel room they had Harry in blocked the com device. I’m looking for an exit that won’t kill him. I think everyone who’s in this building is up front with you lot, so carry on doing whatever it is you’re doing.”

 

 _‘Are you okay?’_ Natasha asked again, refusing to relent.

 

“No.” He snapped angrily. He had just raped a twenty year old Omega who had been tied to the damned ceiling and had been tortured for over three weeks, he was not alright. He felt ashamed and sick; he’d never be able to look in the mirror at himself ever again.

 

He ignored all of their pestering for answers, even Fury, who demanded that he report in full. He had snapped back that he’d do it as soon as he wasn’t in imminent danger. That had shut them up for all of two seconds.

 

 _‘You’re in imminent danger?’_ Steve asked, Clint could almost see his horrified, wide eyes and he felt bad for the lie, right up until a gun fired and he felt a searing pain in his leg.

 

He turned around to see a large man with a gun out and aimed at him. He looked like he was all muscle and no brains, but he knew how to aim a gun. He had purposefully aimed at his legs to incapacitate him without putting Harry in the line of fire. They wanted him alive still.

 

_‘Barton! Report, now!’_

 

“Shut the fuck up!” He yelled, inching his way back along the wall as the large man loped forward, hesitant to shoot because Harry’s body was laying over his own. His Alpha hated the idea, knew instinctually that he needed to protect his Omega, not put him in the line of fire, but this man was hesitant to shoot Harry, it was their best bet of getting out alive.

 

He checked over his shoulder quickly, letting his sharp eyes look for other men, possible hazards, or any corners he was backing into. There was a corner coming up, he hoped there was no one around it because he was going to run.

 

_‘Don’t think I won’t fire your ass for this Barton!’_

“All due respect Sir, if you don’t shut up I won’t be coming out of here alive, so it won’t matter if I’m fired or not!”

 

Clint reached behind him, he had made it to the corner and he spun around and ran, thanking god that there was no one around the other side, he heard the heavy foot falls behind him and prayed that he was faster, even with Harry’s dead weight over his shoulder. He had to get them out of here.

Several more shots and two more bursts of pain in his legs and he stumbled. He shouted at himself internally, he couldn’t falter now. Not now that he was so close. He could see a window, boarded up from the outside, but he could also see that it was rigged with explosives; he was not jumping through that. He ran around in a circle, avoiding the fucker behind him, who was likely just following the blood trail he was leaving, until a patch of light from above had him remembering the skylights.

 

“I’m not getting out.” He said into his com. “I can’t get into the vents and all the windows I’ve come across are rigged with explosives.”

 

 _‘Can’t you climb?!’_ Steve’s desperate voice sounded strained and thick with emotion.

 

“Negative. Bastard’s taken out my legs, I can barely stay upright. Our only hope is to get through the skylights, but I can’t climb and Harry’s unconscious now.”

 

 _‘Do you know where you are?’_ Tony’s voice asked quickly.

 

“I’ve been running around a lot, but I should be on the East side of the building from the only door.” Clint replied, moving on as he heard the distinctive sound of a gun magazine being reloaded and a bullet being chambered into a gun barrel. He swallowed thickly.

 

He moved as quickly as he could, slipping around a corner just as a shot fired and a pain burst through his hip. He grunted and stumbled again, cursing the persistent fuck and hoping that he hadn’t called in his location or for back up, it hadn’t looked like he had a talkie on him or a com device, but the guy had pockets, for all Clint knew he had a phone on him and had already called the situation in.

Glass shattering just ahead of him had him running on his protesting legs. He turned a corner and had never been so happy to see Tony in his life.

 

“Have I told you recently that I love you Tony?” He said in relief as he almost fell into the waiting arms of Ironman, who sent off a jet propulsion as the big ugly with the gun came around the corner.

 

“Not recently.” Tony replied cockily and Clint could almost hear the smirk that was bound to be on his face in his voice as Tony flew them back out of the skylight, calling in his success and getting everyone to pull back. They needed medical attention, especially Harry, but he’d be fucking damned if he was now hobbled or left with a permanent limp because some fucker had shot up his legs and hip. He’d come back just to make sure the bastard was dead.

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Well this had a wonderful response for you readers! Thank you so much, it makes me so much happier to write when I know I’m doing it for readers who actually like what I’m doing.
> 
> Thank you all for reading, reviewing and liking this story! It makes me all warm and happy inside when I get the emails, so thank you!
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	3. Recovery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last Time
> 
> “Have I told you recently that I love you Tony?” He said in relief as he almost fell into the waiting arms of Ironman, who sent off a jet propulsion as the big ugly with the gun came around the corner.
> 
> “Not recently.” Tony replied cockily and Clint could almost hear the smirk that was bound to be on his face in his voice as Tony flew them back out of the skylight, calling in his success and getting everyone to pull back. They needed medical attention, especially Harry, but he’d be fucking damned if he was now hobbled or left with a permanent limp because some fucker had shot up his legs and hip. He’d come back just to make sure the bastard was dead.

Chapter Three – Recovery

 

The medical bay of S.H.I.E.L.D was like a fully equipped hospital room, complete with nurses and doctors. Clint had had the bullets that were lodged in his body removed, one from his hip and one from his thigh; they were the only shots that weren’t through and through.

He was pretending to sleep, partly because the nurses would kill him if they knew he was awake still, but mostly to delay having to give his report, where he would have to tell his team that he had raped Harry as he was tied up and defenceless.

He turned to the side and slitted his eyes open to see Harry in the bed next to him, hooked up to all sorts, stitched up in most parts, and on several different IV’s. He hadn’t gone back into heat, hadn’t released any more pheromones, Clint wondered if it was because his heat period had ended or because he was deeply unconscious.

He closed his eyes again and tried to sleep, he was exhausted, but his mind kept playing over what had happened, what he had done, he was a vile human being and he didn’t deserve to be an Alpha. Why had he been born an Alpha? If he had been a Beta, he would never have lost his head like that at smelling Harry’s heat pheromones, it would have been terribly difficult to focus, it would have distracted him, torn his mind in two, but he would never have raped the little Omega, he had so much self-control he was sure that if he had been a born Beta, and not an Alpha, he would have focused on getting them both out, not on mating the twenty year old, who had such an extensive list of damage from consistent and heavy torture that they were worried about his mental state.

Of course they wanted Harry to wake up as soon as possible. The building they had rescued Harry from had been blown up. Apparently Tony’s jet propulsion had hit the big ugly, who had reflexively pulled the trigger, right into a gas pipe, which had set off a chain reaction and only a minute after they had gotten out and everyone had retreated away to regroup, the building had completely blown up, along with everyone inside it. They had no way of knowing what Harry had told them, or who the people inside the building had been working for, so they didn’t know who had the information Harry had given them or where to find them. Fury was of course livid as questioning the bumbling Agent Nasri had only revealed that he was a lazy bastard who hadn’t wanted to do his own work so had bullied the young, impressionable intern into doing it instead. He hadn’t been involved in the kidnapping plot or sold Agent Potter out to people who would be interested in kidnapping him.

Bartholomew Nasri had made life long enemies of the Avengers, had been stripped from S.H.I.E.L.D and had been fired indefinitely. But it still left the question of how had those people known to take Harry, how had they known that he had the information they needed?

A touch to his hand had Clint jumping in fright, but he made sure not to screw up his face, so the person touching him didn’t know he was awake. The hand was large, so maybe it was Steve, who was feeling so guilty as it had been his orders that had put Clint in the building, though they all knew that Clint would have done it anyway, orders or not, and they had had no way of knowing that they wouldn’t be able to get into the building themselves when Clint had slipped into the vents.

 

“I know you’re awake Clint.” The voice of Phil Coulson had him breathing out in a huff and opening his eyes. His Handler knew him too well. “How are you feeling?”

 

“Like shit.” Clint groaned back. He was tired, but he couldn’t sleep. The painkillers were wearing off so he was in pain that was steadily building and he felt so guilty for adding to Harry’s pain and list of injuries.

 

“You look it.” Phil told him softly, brushing his overlong hair from his face, he’d need it cut soon. “Have you gotten any sleep?”

 

Clint shook his head tiredly. “Can’t sleep, I feel so guilty.”

 

“You are the one who got him out of there Clint, what do you have to feel guilty for? None of the shots aimed at you hit him; you may have jarred him a bit running, but that couldn’t be helped. I know your Alpha instincts would have been out of your control at seeing an Omega so injured and hurt, but don’t let them force you into feeling guilty when you saved him. He would have died in there Clint; you had to run to get the both of you out.”

 

Clint swallowed and turned away from Phil, who’s soft, understanding look hardened and turned into curiosity.

 

“That isn’t why you feel guilty, is it Clint?” Phil asked neutrally. “The doctors say that the suppressant in Agent Potter’s blood is completely untraceable. The tablets aren’t in his system anymore; they said it was a miracle that he hadn’t gone onto a heat period, but he did, didn’t he?”

 

Clint swallowed and clenched his hands, which pulled on the tape holding the IV needle into his arm. He nodded slowly.

 

“There was an industrial air conditioner in the room, I didn’t notice it. It was exchanging the air so I couldn’t smell the pheromones. When I last reported in, I was outside of the room calling for the medical teams to be prepared; I couldn’t smell anything so I thought it was fine. As soon as I stepped into the room, I smelt him. He smelt so good, underneath the blood and the sweat and I was blinded by pheromones, I didn’t see any of the damage on him, he looked gorgeous, he smelled amazing. He was so far in his heat that he was begging for me. I couldn’t control myself, my Alpha instincts were already at the forefront because I knew an Omega had been taken, had been tortured, I could hear him screaming and I thought it was in pain, but it wasn’t. I made a mistake and I hurt him even more.”

 

Coulson breathed in deeply and looked behind him, to the bed that held an unconscious Harry and he swallowed.

 

“I have to tell Director Fury, Clint. You know I do.”

 

Clint nodded. “I was going to do it myself when I got out of this bed. I was going to tell all of you and take all of the consequences together.”

 

“There are laws protecting Omegas Clint, but there are also laws protecting Alphas. Everyone knows that once an Alpha scents out an Omega on heat that they can’t help themselves, you can’t be prosecuted for it Clint, but you could lose your job because Harry works here as well, if he complains that you are too close to him, it will be you losing your job regardless of how long you’ve been here or what your job entails and if he calls rape, you could be looking at a court case.”

 

“I know. I just want to apologise to him first. I never meant to hurt him. I wanted to rescue him, not rape him when he was already in so much pain. I feel terrible.”

 

Phil sighed and patted his shoulder. “You need to make a full report Clint, leaving nothing out.”

 

“I wasn’t planning on leaving anything out Sir.”

 

Phil nodded and went to tell the doctors that Agent Potter might have been impregnated. Clint was in shock; his mind was stuck on one thing and one thing only, the fact that he had raped an Omega. He hadn’t yet realised that he could have fathered a baby on Agent Potter, that would change as soon as he calmed down and his body slipped out of its shocky state and as Agent Potter couldn’t take the emergency contraceptives, the baby would likely be born unless Agent Potter opted for an abortion, there was always giving the baby up for adoption, but as an Omega it was unlikely, most Omegas who opted for adoption, usually changed their minds as soon as the baby was born and ended up keeping it.

He told the doctor, who rushed to Agent Potter to begin more testing, before he told a nurse that Clint was still awake and wasn’t sleeping. She clicked her tongue, loaded up a syringe with a sedative and had injected it through his IV line before Clint could roll over and ask her what she was doing.

He tried to shout at her for drugging him, but his words slurred together and before he had finished his threat, he was fast asleep in the bed. Phil smiled at him, before leaving to debrief Fury and Steve, neither of them were going to be happy, but he hoped that they were understanding, Clint was in enough pain and in such a state of guilt and self-hate that any more would hurt him deeply.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

  

Clint woke up once again to someone touching his hand, it was smaller this time, but his groggy mind couldn’t come up with anyone. He couldn’t believe Phil had ratted him out to the nurse, how dare she drug him like that!

 

“Clint?”

 

Clint slitted his eyes open and groaned at the bright light, he blinked several times very rapidly until his gluey eyes weren’t so sensitive to the bright, overhead lights. Natasha was sat next to him, hand clutching his own.

 

“‘Tasha, how are you?”

 

“I’m fine Clint. How are you?”

 

“Just peachy.” He grumbled, trying to sit up. He caught sight of Harry, still a soft, pale grey colour, his blue, spider web of veins standing out too much on his pale body, tubes and wires crossing all over him, his tiny, stick like arms taped up with a needle into each forearm and a shunt in the back of the right hand. He swallowed. “Do you know Natasha?”

 

He turned to look at her and her blank, steely face told him nothing.

 

“Know what Clint?” She asked him with a lilt of curiosity.

 

He licked his lips and wondered if Phil had only told Fury and it hadn’t gotten to the rest of the Avengers team yet. He hoped so, he wanted to tell them himself, he wanted to explain what had happened before anyone else got around to telling them.

 

“I…I raped him Natasha.” He admitted completely and utterly shamed. He couldn’t even meet her eyes. “He was hanging there, completely helpless and defenceless, there wasn’t a Beta around to tell me it was wrong or that I shouldn’t do it, it was just me and him and I thought it was a wonderful idea to mate him, I couldn’t control myself, like some goddamned teenager. I raped him as he hung there from the ceiling, his body broken and so far into his heat that he was just begging. I couldn’t stop myself.”

 

Clint closed his eyes and felt a bubble of hysteria build inside him. He swallowed it back down hard and sniffed, trying for subtlety, but he knew he had failed when Natasha’s hand clenched over his. 

 

“I know, Coulson told us Clint, but I wanted to hear it from you.”

 

He looked at her. “You knew and yet you still come here. Why?”

 

“You’re an Alpha Clint, when an Omega is so far into their heat that they’re reduced to keening and begging, then you stood no chance as soon as you scented out his pheromones. I knew you had no choice and none of the others hold it against you, though Steve is on the side of the Omega, we all know he comes from a time when an Alpha had to protect Omegas at all times like they were dainty flowers that would be crushed if they weren’t there to protect them, all of them knew that if it had been them in your place, they would have lost it as well. It’s a bit harrowing knowing that if one of them had gone in to get Harry, they would be in your place right now. Tony, Thor, Steve, Bruce, Coulson, Fury, they’re all Alphas too Clint. It’s only me and Pepper who are Betas and we’re more understanding of your position.”

 

“I wish you weren’t.” Clint said miserably. “I hurt him ‘Tasha. I deserve to be beaten to a pulp.”

 

“If it makes you feel better Thor tried to come and beat you to a pulp when he heard you had disrespected an Omega so badly, but he was stopped when he was reminded that you were sedated and recovering from four gun shots. He’s calmed down now, but I think he might still want to beat you over the head with Mjölnir.”

 

Clint blanched as he remembered watching Thor spar with a training dummy. When he went for it, he went for it and it was worse if he was practising with Mjölnir, or mole hill as Clint had taken to calling it before Thor had taught him how to pronounce his hammer’s name properly, as he had been raised a warrior of Asgard, he often slipped into the fight and forgot he was supposed to be training and practising, not destroying the entire of Stark Tower.

 

“Relax Clint; you know he won’t fight anyone he considers as unable to fight back. You’re in a hospital bed, wired up to IVs and with six holes in your body. I’m sure by the time you’re healed he’ll be calmer and you can explain it to him before he challenges you to the death for the honour of the Omega.”

 

Clint nodded as he looked back to Harry in the bed next to him. “Has he woken up at all?”

 

Natasha looked at the twenty year old and shook her head. “No. He was dehydrated, starved and very, very hurt Clint, they don’t expect him to wake up anytime soon.”

 

“How hurt?” Clint asked.

 

“You don’t need to know that at the momen….”

 

“I want to know Natasha!” Clint interrupted angrily.

 

“The only bone broken was his right ankle; it was a clean break, like someone had gripped the back of his heel and the top side of his foot and twisted it sharply, snapping it, either for torture or to stop him from running away in the unlikely event that he got out of his restraints.”

 

“He wasn’t getting away from that, he was tied several times with different ropes through a thick, steel hoop screwed into the concrete ceiling. Not to mention how weak he must have been.”

 

“They didn’t feed him anything the doctors don’t think, he’s lost so much weight, and his stomach is shrunken and empty. It looks like the torture mainly consisted of sleep deprivation, starvation, blades and burns, though some of the fresher wounds held traces of salt. He still has all of his fingers, toes, teeth and eyes, you likely already know he still has his genitals, so they hadn’t progressed to mutilation, though he had been tied up for so long the doctors thought they would have to amputate his hands or the very least his fingers. They couldn’t get the blood flow back into them at first, but that danger passed and though his fingers twitch randomly, they think he’ll have full use of them still, but it’s his one leg that is causing concerns, the burns go so deeply and the reflexes have completely gone, they think permanent nerve and muscle damage, but they can’t be sure until he wakes up.”

 

“What…what about what I did to him?” Clint asked.

 

“No trauma, no tears, no bruising. The doctors say for an Alpha caught in an Omegas heat, you were surprisingly gentle. They didn’t even check him because they didn’t think he had had a heat period and he showed no signs of trauma or rape, but once they knew that he had been mated, they looked further and found semen inside him, only yours though.”  

 

Clint felt sick with himself as the surge of pride and happiness filled him at hearing that he had been the only one to mate the Omega. He wanted to hurt himself for what he had done and for what he was feeling.

 

“It wasn’t your fault Clint, it was circumstance.”

 

“You’ve mentioned everyone but Tony and Bruce, what do they think of what I’ve done?”

 

“Bruce is Bruce. Of course he doesn’t blame you Clint and Tony’s just glad it wasn’t him. He made a huge show of saying ‘I told you so’ and he toasted you and Harry with a bottle of bourbon, thanking you that you hadn’t made him go into the building to get Harry.”

 

“Yeah, that sounds like Tony.” Clint managed a weak smile. “What about the people in the building, I know they’re all dead now, but did we find anything out?”

 

“Well, not all of the building blew up Clint, two men survived, as well as several rooms which are being scoured.”

 

“So nothing yet? I want the people who did this to Harry to pay.”

 

“I know you do, we all do. I’m being drowned in protective Alpha pheromones, Steve’s the worst, he’s always the worst, but Thor is a close second in the Mother Henning. They obviously have never seen a cornered Omega beating the shit out of an Alpha.”

 

Clint snorted. “I still say you made that up.”

 

“I’m serious, I was right there watching them Clint.”

 

“You’re a Beta; you’re supposed to stop Alphas from attacking Omegas.”

 

“Trust me, that Omega held his own. He was a vicious little fucker.”

 

“I’ll believe it when I see it.”

 

Natasha snorted and patted Clint’s hand. “Get some more rest; I’m going to go check in with Coulson and Fury.”

 

“Come back and tell me?” Clint asked.

 

“Tomorrow, you need your rest.”

 

“No, please, I don’t want to sleep anymore.”

 

“Don’t make me get the nurse over here with another sedative.” Natasha threatened.

 

Clint huffed. “Fine. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

 

Natasha smiled and on the way out, she softly told the nurse that Clint was awake and to keep an eye on him. She knew that if Clint didn’t fall back to sleep within five minutes, he would have another sedative shoved into him, and maybe in his mood and with his mind set, that was a good thing, the kindest thing to give him at the moment was a dreamless, medicated sleep.

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

Tony Stark cursed as he typed lightning fast on the damaged keyboard, trying to salvage anything at all from the electronics from the room that had been the least damaged in the explosion. He was disgusted to see some of his own equipment, including his brand new Starkpads.

His mind was going a thousand miles a minute as he tried to get any amount of information from the laptop in front of him. It was damaged, but it wasn’t destroyed and he wanted the information it held.

He thought of those few adrenaline fuelled minutes when he had heard over the com device that Clint was in imminent danger, that he thought he wasn’t going to get out. He still remembered the Capt.’s desperate question _‘Can’t you climb?!’_ and the strained answer in his ear _‘Negative. Bastard’s taken out my legs.’_

When he had gone through that skylight, not even knowing if he was on the right side of the building, seeing Clint stumbling around the corner a few moments later with a naked, unconscious body over his shoulder, had filled him with relief and with concern. He had seen the large, wet patches on Clint’s trousers, the torn holes where the bullets had entered. He had counted five patches of blood, two visible holes in his legs and another at his waistline. He knew now that two of the four bullets that had been fired at Clint had gone in and come back out again, but two bullets had been caught in bone, but at the time it had looked like he had been shot several times in his legs and he had caught Clint as he stumbled into his arms, seeing the person who was most likely responsible for Clint’s condition, if not Harry’s as well, he shot off a blast before he could fully think it through, but even knowing what had happened after he had let off that blast, he regretted nothing, even if it did make his work harder, searching through singed and fire damaged electronics for any information that could help.

 

“Tony?”

 

He jerked up and looked around at Bruce, who was holding another laptop. He huffed out a breath.

 

“Am I expected to look through all of these computers and pads?” He demanded, even as he swiped the new laptop from Bruce and cracked it open carefully; hitting the power button and hoping it even came on at all.

 

“Clint woke up. Natasha said he was asking what we all thought of him.”

 

“What, so birdbrain scores with the world’s hottest Omega and he’s asking what we think? Of course I’m jealous!” Tony teased.

 

“You know what he meant Tony.” Bruce scolded.

 

“Yeah I know, but I’m sure Potter would much rather be mated by birdie than still be in that place.”

 

Bruce nodded. “Natasha tried to tell him that, but in a softer way, she doesn’t think he got it.”

 

“He’s been drugged up to his eyeballs for the last two days; of course he didn’t get subtle. Now fuck off, I’m busy.”

 

Bruce gave a wry smile. He loved talking with Tony, he didn’t treat him any differently because of the other guy, he didn’t side step around him or walk on eggshells around him, he wasn’t worried about him getting angry and going green on him. Tony had always treated him just like the others, he teased him, spoke sharply and bluntly to him and wasn’t afraid to speak his mind at all. He enjoyed being in Tony’s company for that, and it was nice to be around someone whose eyes didn’t show a flash of fear, a hint of hesitance if he stayed in the room for longer than a few seconds.

 

“Is there anything I can do to help?” He asked, wanting to be around Tony just a little longer. Steve’s henpecking over Clint and Harry’s condition was making him edgy.

 

“Sure, get those pads over there and see what’s on them, I haven’t had a chance to look at them yet. I’ve spent two days on that laptop, three on the one before it and this one is not going to be any better.” Tony hissed as he clicked keys at a faster pace than Bruce could keep up with.

 

He smiled and pulled up a seat opposite Tony and hit the power button for the first Starkpad, he wondered if Tony’s reluctance to look at the pads was really because he was so busy with the laptops, or because he felt guilty for supplying the enemies with his technology, something he had done once before.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

Harry flinched, feeling his leg jerk on the bed he was lying on. He blinked his eyes open, why was he on a bed? He looked around him, and tried to move as he saw a lot of people around another hospital bed. He tried not to make a sound, but his body was one giant throbbing agony and as he pulled on something on his stomach he sucked in a pained breath and the muscle in his leg started jumping under his skin, sending bolts of pain throughout his entire body and he grunted.

All at once he was surrounded by nurses and doctors and the people around the other bed had turned to look at him and he didn’t like having so many people around him. As a woman approached him quickly, he forced his body up, ignoring the bone deep agony it caused him and he huddled up near the headboard, something pulled on his arms and he looked down to see various needles going under his skin. What were they doing? What was happening? Where was he?

He ripped the needles out with one hard jerk to each one, despite the nurses gasping and shouting at him not to. He was gasping for breath, he felt too hot, he couldn’t breathe, his eyes were blurring as he tried to squash himself up against the headboard further.

Large, cool hands cupped his face and he found himself looking into the stern eyes, eye, of a man he had only heard of in stories and only knew the description of from gossiping work colleagues. The Director of S.H.I.E.L.D Nick Fury. He swallowed, still panting as if he had run a mile, but his body was calming and with the dispersion of the rapid jolt of adrenaline, the pain was coming back with vengeance.

He couldn’t believe it. S.H.I.E.L.D had come for him, the agents of his workplace had saved him from those people, he felt so relieved he could cry. Instead he sucked in lungful after lungful of disinfectant scented air. He hated hospitals so very much, they brought back pain filled, tainted memories that he wanted to forget had ever happened. He continued to breathe.

 

“Agent Potter, can you hear me?”

 

Harry blinked and from the look on the Director’s face he had been trying to get his attention for a short while. He swallowed and sucked in a deeper lungful of air, calming himself, he could do this.

 

“Yes Sir.”

 

“Do you know where you are?”

 

Harry looked around slower this time, taking in everything his eyes could see, noticing the familiar setting now that he wasn’t panicking. He came here every single week for his suppressant tablets, he knew where he was and it slowed his racing heart. He nodded carefully, those large hands still cupping his face. “The med bay of S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters Sir.”

 

“Do you remember who I am?” Another, softer voice asked and Harry’s eyes slipped to the man standing behind and to the side of the Director.

 

A memory slipped to him, of spending the night under his desk, emerging to find a takeaway cup of coffee and a bag of blueberry muffins on a table between himself and this man. This man had given him that coffee and bag of muffins.

 

Harry nodded carefully, ignoring the twinges of pain in his neck at the action. “The muffin man.”

 

There were snorts of laughter and the muffin man smiled widely at him, Harry looked around confused and worried that he had gotten it wrong, had someone else given him those muffins that day? It seemed like so long ago and he couldn’t really remember, had he confused the memory with something or someone else? He made a distressed noise and swallowed around his dry tongue, now that sensation brought back fresher, more painful memories and he flinched violently.

 

“Calm yourself Harry.” The Director coached him. “Perhaps you are remembering the day that Agent Coulson gave you a bag of muffins.”

 

Harry nodded, thankful that someone knew what he was talking about and that he hadn’t confused the information with something else.

 

“Could someone please get Harry a drink of water.” The Director ordered, not taking his eye from Harry, it reminded him of Moody somewhat and he felt calmer, more reassured, even if the thought of Moody no longer being around caused his stomach to ache. He had liked the real Moody once he had gotten to know the grizzled, paranoid and grumpy old man who had harshly taught him how to protect himself though any situation.

 

A polystyrene cup of water was handed to him with a bendy straw and memories of it happening before made him jerk, spilling most of the water over his sheets. His hand spasmed and he dropped the cup in horror at the wet stain, before realising that letting go of the cup made the wetness worse. His entire body flinched as he remembered dropping a china teacup as a child and getting a hard slap to the face for it. His arms automatically rose to protect himself from a blow that never came.

Instead large hands slipped under his arms and cupped his face again; Harry peeked out and lowered his arms, coaching himself to carry on breathing, even if the panic and adrenaline had made his breaths shaky and the heart monitor beside his bed to go haywire. He wasn’t a child anymore, he was twenty years old now, the slap hadn’t happened recently, it had happened at the Dursleys. He nodded to himself, the Dursleys couldn’t hurt him anymore, couldn’t do anything to him anymore, he hadn’t seen or heard from them since he was seventeen. He was safe from them now.

 

“Harry, do you remember what happened to you the day Agent Coulson gave you those muffins in the break room?”

 

“I was abducted off of the street Sir.” Harry answered softly.

 

“What happened then?”

 

“The worst van journey in history. Someone should really think of putting padding in the backs of those things Sir.”

 

A handful of people snorted, but Harry only had eyes for Fury, whose single eye was shining in amusement and determination, even if his mouth was a thin, straight line.

 

“Do you remember after that?”

 

“I was dragged out of the van, it was a really, really long journey, it was already dark, but it was impossible to sleep in the van when I was being thrown around so much. They put me in a chair and secured my wrists and ankles with plastic ties.”

 

“What did they do to you in the chair Harry?”

 

“They liked punching; it started with my face and chest, but moved onto the sides and back of my head.”

 

“What were they asking?”

 

“My name to begin with, then they asked where I worked, how old was I, just basic stuff to begin with.”

 

“How long did they hit you for?”

 

“I don’t know, I lost all track of time in that place Sir, I wasn’t exactly counting every second.”

 

Harry calmed himself and averted his eyes. He needed to stay calm; he couldn’t shout at his superior, the Director no less.

 

“What did you tell them?” Fury asked as calmly and as patiently as he could.

 

“Nothing Sir. That’s why they moved from my face to the back of my head, I’m sure they thought giving me a concussion would aide them.”

 

“When were you moved from the chair and where were you moved to?”

 

“I…” Harry stopped and frowned, trying to bring the memories up in a timeline, but it was difficult and confusing.

 

“Take your time.” He was encouraged.

 

“They moved me the next morning, or at least I think it was morning, the window was boarded up. They dragged me into a steel room opposite the previous room and tied my wrists separately with rope before suspending me from the ceiling until just my toes were on the floor, then they tied my wrists together until my shoulder blades touched.”

 

“What did they do and what did they ask?”

 

“They started using blades and knives.” Harry licked his dry lips as the memory resurfaced; his hand automatically fell to his nipple as a phantom pain spread through it. “That bastard sliced through my nipple!”

 

Harry looked down and used a hand to pull the hospital gown away from his chest; he frowned at the three stitches going through his left nipple. He swallowed at the amount of stitches he had, dotted around here and there like a grotesque tapestry. The biggest one he could see was on his belly, almost hipbone to hipbone. He flinched violently as the memory of having salt rubbed repeatedly into that particular wound took over and his knee jerked irrepressibly in response to the full body movement.

 

“Alright, calm down Agent Potter. Tell me what questions you were asked.”

 

“My name. They wanted to know about you and S.H.I.E.L.D Sir, umm…Hydra weapons, they wanted to know where S.H.I.E.L.D was storing the Hydra weapons, they wanted to know about the Avengers Initiative. The most frequently asked question was about the S.H.I.E.L.D undercover base watching the nuclear armaments warehouse, they were desperate to know where that base was.”

 

Fury took his eye from him for the first time since he had started questioning him, to give a pointed look to the muffin man, Agent Coulson, Harry mentally corrected himself, before turning to look back at him.

 

“What did you tell them Harry? We need to know what you said in order to counteract anything they might do.”

 

“Nothing Sir.”

 

“You told them nothing?”

 

Harry shook his head, adamantly keeping eye contact with the man to prove he wasn’t lying, before a memory came to him that had his eyes widening. He _had_ told them something. Those strong hands tensed on his face, applying just a bit more pressure.

 

“What did you tell them Potter?”

 

“My name.” He answered softly as he cupped the stitched slit in his belly.

 

“Your stomach wound was one of the longest and deepest cuts; it had very high traces of salt in it.” Fury told him.

 

Harry flinched and slumped over his belly as much as he could while in so much pain.

 

“It hurt so badly, even more than the burns and the cuts. Though I think the slice through the nipple hurt the worst, but that happened early on, at the end I was so tired, they hadn’t let me sleep for even a minute, every time I closed my eyes, or even if they just thought I was asleep they’d jerk me awake again, they wouldn’t give me anything to eat, they controlled how much water I took in, everything I had was beaten down and when they introduced the salt to the belly wound, he asked me my name and I told him, I screamed ‘Harry’ at him several times. I knew even before I did it that I shouldn’t have. Give them an inch and they expect a chasm and they did. They started throwing questions at me, mostly about the base watching the nuclear armaments, and they just kept cutting and adding salt, rubbing it into the wounds to make it worse and it hurt so badly.”

 

“But you told them nothing else, only that your name was Harry?” Fury asked.

 

“It was the only thing I let slip, I swear it Sir and I’m sorry that I told them my name, I never meant to. I’m sorry.”

 

“You’re sorry because the only thing you told them was that your name was Harry? Don’t be, older and bigger men than you have spilled their inner most darkest secrets at just the sight of a blade, you have nothing to be sorry for.”

 

Harry perked up a bit at that. “So I can keep my job?”

 

“If you actually want to be a part of S.H.I.E.L.D still after this, then we’ll be happy to have you once you’ve recovered.”

 

Harry grinned at that and lay back in his bed, determined to recover and get back to work as soon as humanly possible, he wanted to bury his memories and forget that this had ever happened and move on.

 

“Of course there are two, non-negotiable conditions.” Fury told him at the door. “Number one is that you see the agency psychiatrist and the second is that you move into Stark Tower for a while, I won’t have you left vulnerable to be abducted again, not until I’m sure the people responsible for this are caught.”

 

Then the Director was gone, leaving him in a room full of people he didn’t know, even if he did know their names, to be fussed over by nurses with his stomach heavy and leaden. The very last thing he wanted was to see a psychiatrist and he didn’t want to live with a bunch of super heroes either, he wanted his own bed, his own stuff and his own space, but he also wanted his job.

Sighing heavily, Harry allowed the nurses to carefully hook him back up to the IV’s he had ripped out in his panic, settling back as a doctor came over to check him over, doing all sorts of tests now that he was awake. It didn’t last long, he was calm now, he knew where he was, he knew he was safe, as soon as he settled himself into the pillow and found a position that didn’t put pressure on his damaged body he was fast asleep once again.

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I’m in work tonight now, so the next chapter might not be out until next week some when, but I’m sure these first three chapters can tide you all over until then.
> 
> ptl4ever419: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics are really like their own universe, it’s like trying to read a fandom that you know nothing about, the more you read the more you learn. I was given a link to a website that explains it all basically: fanlore(.)org/wiki/Alpha/Beta/Omega. Everything listed here doesn’t related perfectly to this story, as I’m putting my own spin on it, like every write does, but it explains the basics. I hope it helps.
> 
> Thank you all for your support of this story! I’m now taking on a challenge where I write a ficlet for all the Avengers (minus Natasha, because I’m not a fan of het) with Harry. So we’ll see how that turns out.
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	4. Moving In and Meditating

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last Time
> 
> “Of course there are two, non-negotiable conditions.” Fury told him at the door. “Number one is that you see the agency psychiatrist and the second is that you move into Stark Tower for a while, I won’t have you left vulnerable to be abducted again, not until I’m sure the people responsible for this are caught.”
> 
> Then the Director was gone, leaving him in a room full of people he didn’t know, even if he did know their names, to be fussed over by nurses with his stomach heavy and leaden. The very last thing he wanted was to see a psychiatrist and he didn’t want to live with a bunch of super heroes either, he wanted his own bed, his own stuff and his own space, but he also wanted his job.  
> Sighing heavily, Harry allowed the nurses to carefully hook him back up to the IV’s he had ripped out in panic, settling back as a doctor came over to check him over, doing all sorts of tests now that he was awake. It didn’t last long, he was calm now, he knew where he was, he knew he was safe, as soon as he settled into the pillow he was asleep once again.

Chapter Four – Moving In and Meditating

Harry was in and out of sleep a lot over the next few weeks as he remained in the med bay. He saw a lot of Steve Rogers, Captain America, who liked sitting by his bedside over those few weeks.

The first time Harry had opened his eyes and saw the large blond sat next to him he had yelled out and jumped in horror, his heart monitor beeping incessantly at a rapid pace. Of course the other Avengers were there visiting their injured teammate and Tony Stark just found his reaction to Steve hilarious.

Steve’s excuse was that he wanted Harry to get to know them if he was going to be moving in with them, it was a nice thought, but waking up to a near stranger sat over him hiked his heart rate up for the first few times that it happened and frankly scared the shit out of him, but Harry had come to expect the large blond man to be sat next to him now, it no longer bothered him.

Slowly but surely he got to know the Avengers, some of them were easier to like than others and everything about Thor was just strange, from his name, to his way of speaking, to how he liked dressing when not forced to dress normally, but Harry liked Thor, even though S.H.I.E.L.D had officially classed him as an ‘alien’ and he liked that he wasn’t normal even if it did bring up memories of the wizarding world and how the magical people had dressed for the Quidditch world cup.

The only Avenger Harry felt really strange around was Clint and he didn’t know why. He had been told that Clint was the one to rescue him, had been the one to put his life in danger, going into that building on his own, with no backup, knowing that the building was full of dangerous people, hell he had been fucking shot four times, just to get Harry out. He didn’t understand.

Then, Harry’s understanding and clarity had been all but ruined, he didn’t know if it was stress, a coping mechanism or something fucked up in his brain from the amount of torture he had gone through, but the more he tried to figure out, the less he remembered.

He had asked about what had happened, he had even asked Clint himself, but the man just apologised, very sincerely, and left the med bay quickly, leaving Harry so confused, did the man regret saving him?

 

“Are you alright?”

 

Harry blinked and looked up at Steve, who sat next to him in the perfectly normal chair that he made look fragile and delicate.

 

“Every time I think I’m getting better I realise that I’ve forgotten something else.”

 

“You are getting better Harry.” Steve told him. “You went through something so horribly horrific that most people would have given in, but you didn’t. It’s natural that your mind doesn’t want to hold onto such terrible things, maybe you’d be best letting them go.”

 

“You sound like the psychiatrist.” Harry grumbled good naturedly.

 

Steve gave him a kind smile. “Are you excited to be moving in with us tomorrow?”

 

“I’m still not sure living with a bunch of misfits is a good idea.” Harry smiled tiredly.

 

“You hear that? Misfits he calls us, after we save his life.”

 

Harry gave Tony a look, before smiling. He unconsciously rubbed his chest, over his sliced nipple. The stitches had come out, but he had a lot of scars, he couldn’t wait to get a salve to help get rid of them, it would have to be a weak one though, he couldn’t let on that he was magical, though now that he was being watched so closely by government agents and a bunch of superheroes he wasn’t sure any magical healing salve was a good idea, but he couldn’t live with so many reminders on his own body, he just couldn’t, so he was going to take the risk and hope they didn’t lock him in a cell and wipe his existence from the face of the Earth so no one ever found him.

 

“You’re pale again; maybe you should sleep a bit more.” Steve fretted.

 

“I’m fine, honestly Steve. I’ve liked catching up on sleep, but too much makes me feel worse.”

 

Steve looked worried again and Harry smiled and tried to sit up. He failed on his first two attempts and waved Steve away when he tried to help sit him up. He managed it on his fifth attempt with gritted teeth. His doctors and nurses didn’t call him ‘ridiculously stubborn’ for no good reason.

 

“Have you found anything out about the people who did this?” Harry asked mildly, as he always did when any of them came visiting, which was pretty much every day, even though Clint had made his escape from the med bay the week before.

 

“I’m sorry Harry, nothing.”

 

Harry frowned at the same answer he always got and something niggled in his brain.

 

“Are you lying to me?” He asked softly, his voice light and non-accusing.

 

Steve blushed ten shades of red and all of them shared a look and Harry knew he had been right, they were lying to him, they knew something.

 

“Contrary to what you might believe, I’m not stupid you know, no matter what I might have gone through, I can tell when I’m being lied to, but I trusted you all to not lie to me so I brushed it off and it turns out you have lied to me.”

 

“Tony found the recorded footage of what happened to you on one of the laptops recovered from the abandoned warehouse. The sound is a bit off because it was damaged, but the picture wasn’t.” Bruce told him. Harry liked Bruce, even if he did make him slightly edgy and uncomfortable.

 

Harry nodded. “I knew they were recording everything, right from the beginning. The camera was near enough right in my face. That and they had to have some way to know every time I closed my eyes for longer than a blink.”

 

“How you dealt with what they did to you, it was almost unreal.” The only woman, Natasha, told him stony faced.

 

“It’s called stubbornness. I have plenty.” Harry answered stiffly.

 

“Plenty of stubborn men have cracked under the level of torture inflicted on you.”

 

“I’m not most men!” Harry snapped. He regretted it immediately as his leg jerked out and sent a spasm through his entire body that had him clutching at it in agony. Two weeks and it still hadn’t stopped doing that. It wasn’t exactly getting worse, but it wasn’t getting any better either.

 

“Are you alright?”

 

“I’m fine Steve! I’m fine.” Harry breathed deeply, shoving the duvet off of his body and staring at the heavily bandaged leg that was causing all of the problems. He gripped it on either side of his kneecap and growled at it.

 

“That’s going to help.” Tony couldn’t help but quip.

 

“It makes me feel better.” Harry refused to admit that he was pouting, but the indulgent smiles he got clued him in otherwise, they thought of him as nothing but a cute little Omega when he did adorable things like trying to growl like an Alpha, when he scowled or glared and pouted. He huffed and turned back to his leg, he could see the muscle twitching under the skin, even under the tight, heavy bandage. He wanted to hit his own leg, but the last time he had Thor had pinned him down and held him still for over an hour and his personal psychiatrist had made it so he was never left alone to ‘exhibit his destructive behaviour on himself’.

 

He wasn’t self-destructive; he wasn’t suicidal or waiting for an opportunity to hurt or kill himself. He wasn’t, he was just rightfully frustrated. He was stuck in a bed, his body was broken, his mind wasn’t working like he wanted it to and he was kept in the dark about the very operation that had surrounded him, but not only being kept in the dark anymore, he was actively being lied to! If they were lying about this, then what else were they lying about? He knew they had made some breakthroughs and had information, but they weren’t telling him. Why weren’t they telling him? Hadn’t he proven himself trustworthy already?

Harry growled again in frustration and his fingers dug into his leg muscles as they contracted painfully. As his leg jerked out again, Harry lost patience and gave in, hitting his own leg with the side of his fist, he went to do it again only for Steve to catch his hand and held it between both of his own.

Harry lost it and foolishly tried to fight Steve off, he ended up being pinned to the bed, breathing heavily and glaring up at concerned blue eyes as a nurse who had seen everything hurried over with a syringe filled with a sedative.

 

“If you put that into me I’m going to be furious.” He hissed. “I’ve slept too much already; I don’t want to be sedated!”

 

Steve held him more securely as the nurse came up to his bedside with the needle full of clear liquid.

 

“I’ll never forgive you for this Steve.” Harry told him icily calm, glaring up at those blue eyes.

 

“I’m sorry.” Steve told him softly as the sedative was injected into his IV line.

 

“No you’re not. Not yet.” Harry trailed off, his eyes becoming heavy as he was sucked under the effects of the drug, fighting until the last moment; the last thing he saw was Steve’s pained expression, then nothing.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

“I feel awful.” Steve said sadly as he combed soft fingers through a sleeping Harry’s thick hair.

 

“He’s becoming immune to the sedative; it’ll only keep him under for an hour.” The nurse told them before moving to dispose of the needle.

 

“Have you found out if he’s pregnant or not yet?” Clint asked, his eyes glued to the little Omega in the bed.

 

“Nothing is showing up.”

 

“Is it too soon, or do you think he might not be pregnant?”

 

“It could be either, due to changes in hormones, it is usually easier to tell with male Omegas due to the increased amounts of oestrogen if they’re pregnant, but Harry’s body always seems to be full of adrenaline trying to fight off the sedative, which confuses the tests we apply to check his hormone levels. His body really doesn’t like the sedative being in his system.”

 

“Don’t you think we should tell him that he could potentially be pregnant?” Bruce asked calmly.

 

“Doctor Mandes doesn’t think it’s a good idea with his current state of mental health, it could be the thing that pushes him over the edge.”

 

“Surely he deserves to know.” Natasha said strongly. “It’s his body. He has a right to decide if he wants to be pregnant or not.”

 

“If the knowledge breaks his mind, then what?” The nurse argued.

 

“That isn’t your call to make.” Tony told her. “After everything he’s been through, he deserves to know that he could be pregnant by someone he’s now being forced to live with.”

 

Clint sucked in a breath and avoided looking at anyone. He felt terrible enough as it was, but he had offered several times to tell Harry himself what he had done and the potential consequences of what he had done, but he was shot down by the doctors, who feared for Harry’s mental state after he was told.

 

“He’s being released into our care tomorrow. I’ll tell him then.” Clint cut in firmly. “He deserves to know what I did to him.”

 

“It was out of your control Clint.” Natasha told him firmly.

 

“You will do him irreparable mental damage.” The nurse snapped.

 

“You underestimate him.” Thor’s booming voice silenced them all. “His strength and courage has surpassed all expectations! He has proven himself worthy; I would be honoured to fight beside him as a warrior.”

 

“It doesn’t matter if he can handle it or not, he has a right to know regardless.” Bruce put in after Thor’s loud announcement.

 

Harry groaned in the bed and rolled and the nurse rushed to check his vitals.

 

“I don’t believe it. His body has eliminated the sedative already; he hasn’t been under for twenty minutes!”

 

The nurse hurried out to get the head doctor, Doctor Mandes, as Harry rolled over again and scrunched up his face, his mind fighting off the heavy effects of the sedative.

 

“Harry?”

 

“Hmm?”

 

“Are you awake?”

 

“I don’t wanna sleep no more.” Harry slurred, his closed eyes blinking rapidly under his eyelids.

 

Harry’s gorgeous green eyes opened, looking slightly glazed, but he forced his body up with pure pig-headedness and gave a very adorable, sleepy glare to Steve.

 

“If I’ve been asleep all night again I’m going to kill you. Super serum be damned!”

 

“It’s been twenty minutes.” Bruce told him, unable to help himself as he came closer and checked Harry’s vitals, smiling wryly as the cute glare turned to him.

 

“Had better of been.” Harry mumbled as he handed Bruce his body trustingly to be checked over.

 

“The sedative seems to be ineffective now.” Bruce told him. “Your body barely goes under before fighting it off with increasing amounts of adrenaline.”

 

“Yes, perhaps we should change the sedative this time and not the dosage of the regular one we have been giving you.” Doctor Mandes stated as he came out of the office.

 

“You give me any more sedative and I’m leaving AMA.” Harry threatened, moving to sit on the edge of the bed to prove he was serious, ignoring Bruce’s hands that automatically moved to hover over his waist.

 

“You can’t.” Doctor Mandes told him. “Director Fury wants you to remain here until you are released.”

 

“Today, tomorrow, not much difference if all I’m going to be doing is sleeping.”

 

“It is a possibility that you’ll be released tomorrow, not a certainty.”

 

Harry’s face fell. “Excuse me, what? I was assured I’d be released tomorrow!”

 

“The increasing evidence of your mental instability and self-harming tendencies has made me review the decision to release you at all, let alone as soon as tomorrow.”

 

“Fuck this.” Harry said, slipping to his feet and gritting his teeth against the pain that shot up his one leg and through his spine.

 

“What are you doing? Get back in that bed instantly!”

 

“Go fuck yourself! I’m leaving. You’re not going to use me as some little lab rat so you can practice your needless little tests.”

 

Harry forced himself to leave, knowing full well that he couldn’t be stopped, that he could press assault charges if the doctor manhandled him.

 

“Do you think that this is a good idea?”

 

“Fuck off Steve! I should have done this last week.” Harry told him as he hobbled his way to the lift to take him down; thankful that he had demanded real clothes over the little gown he had been wearing when he had first woken up. He was wearing plastic covered, paper thin, washed out green, shorts and a matching tee-shirt in the same material that could be ripped from his body between two fingers, but anything was better than the gown.

 

“I think he’s cute being a little rebel.” Tony smirked, offering him an arm to grip onto when he ran out of wall to lean against. “He shouldn’t have to be some doctor’s pet.”

 

“Thank you Tony, at least one of you understands!” Harry grumbled as he bashed the zero button to take him down to the ground floor, purposefully ignoring the cute comment.

 

“So where are you going?” Clint asked him.

 

“Home.” Harry snapped. “I’m going to sit on my own settee and read my own books until I can forget all about this last month.”

 

“Maybe that’s not…”

 

“Say another word Steve. I dare you.” Harry bit out as his leg almost folded under him. He was up in Tony’s arms before he could gasp.

 

“Come on Princess, I’ll get you home.” Tony grinned.

 

“Put me down!” Harry demanded.

 

“Going to crawl home are you?” Tony snarked.

 

“If it means I keep my dignity, yes.”

 

“Don’t be so stubborn.”

 

“That’s rich coming from you. It’s only stubbornness keeping you alive.”

 

“Which is why I know when it’s best to give in and let your friends help you.”

 

“We’re friends now?”

 

“Yes.” Tony replied simply and Harry huffed, settling down in Tony’s arms, though for the record he wanted it known that he wasn’t happy being in this situation. Not happy at all.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

He had been home for a day when Fury and Coulson paid him a visit. Harry was surprised they had waited that long to be honest, as he was sure that Steve had called them as soon as he had closed his front door on him, but he had used the time to pack, he knew the terms of him keeping his job were still non-negotiable, which meant that he was still going to have to live in Stark Tower with the Avengers.

He had packed most of his magical things into a secret compartment built into his suitcase before filling it with his books and of course his photo album filled with all of his moving, wizard photos, his non-moving, Muggle photo album and a few of his smaller photo frames were also in his suitcase too and he had a hold all bag with some spare sets of clothes and a few of his electronics, he’d come back for the rest if he had to.

 

“So this is where you got to.” Fury said as soon as Harry opened the door.

 

“I’m sorry Sir, but when I was told I might not be released, I took matters into my own hands.”

 

“Your leg still isn’t a hundred percent. How have you managed?”

 

Harry smiled and let the two men enter his home, nodding to the armchair where Clint was fast asleep.

 

“He won’t leave me alone.” Harry told them. “In the med bay, I thought he didn’t like me, or that he regretted saving me from the amount of times he kept apologising and then leaving, but since I left yesterday, he’s refused to leave me alone. He’s a very confusing individual; I just wished my gut wasn’t so messed when he was around.”

 

“What do you mean?” Fury asked, sharing a slight look with Agent Coulson, which put Harry on his guard.

 

“I get a strange feeling around Clint and Bruce. Bruce I’m sure it’s because of the Gamma radiation, but I’m not sure about Clint.” Harry answered, watching them closely, neglecting to mention that he was likely more in tune to Bruce’s radiation because of his magic, which was replenishing itself along with his climbing energy levels; also the wand in his forearm holster was helping a lot. He had strapped it on as soon as he got home; fuck S.H.I.E.L.D he wasn’t going to be caught out like that ever again, Statute of Secrecy be damned.

 

“I’ll have a talk with him.” Coulson said softly. “He’s likely still feeling guilty that he put you in the line of fire upon your escape.”

 

“He doesn’t need to feel guilty about that, I’ve told him myself. I’d much rathered have been shot several times on an escape attempt than remain in that place a moment longer. I’d rather have died than stay in that place any longer.”

 

“You’re still moving into Stark Tower.” Fury told him sternly.

 

Harry nodded to the packed suitcase and the hold all bag. “Clint’s taking me later today.”

 

“He cares for you.” Fury told him and Harry narrowed his eyes, he thought it was a strange thing to say.

 

“Must I go back to the med bay at all?” He asked changing the subject, thinking on Fury’s actions and Clint’s behaviour gave him a searing headache.

 

“No, I think that now you are out and stubbornly refusing to go back, we can leave you under the care of the Avengers and the abled Doctor Banner.” Fury stated and smirked at the grin that lit up Harry’s face. “Just take it easy and keep yourself in one piece.”

 

“I’ll try Sir, but you have to tell these Alphas to stop pinning me down all the time, especially Steve and Thor, oh and tell Tony to stop carrying me.”

 

“I’ll be sure to tell them, but I don’t think they can help themselves sometimes.”

 

Harry chuckled as he sat back on the settee as his knee started to shake. His muscles were getting stronger the more he used them over the past week or so, but it was painful and slow going and when standing still he couldn’t help but pick his injured leg up so it didn’t throb as much. It was going to take months, if not years, before his leg was even half of what it used to be, which is why he had sent an owl to St Fiacre’s Medical Centre for Magical Injuries and Illnesses when Clint had fallen asleep asking for something to help musculature and nerve damage in a leg as well as a weak scar reducer. He had told them to send the requested items to him via Muggle means and had given Stark Tower as the address.

 

“How are you feeling in…other parts?” Fury asked.

 

“You mean my mind, don’t you?” Harry sighed.

 

“Yes, that is what I was asking.”

 

“Honestly, after those first few days where I lived through it all again like some vivid dream, I’m remembering less and less Sir. It’s like my own mind is trying to lock away the memories and the more I try to stop it from happening, or the more I try to remember, the faster the memories go. I’m sure I’m missing a few memories about what happened, so I haven’t given you the fullest report I can until I get those memories back. The psychiatrist said to just let them go, but I can’t Sir. It happened to me, it was terrible and I hate that it happened to me, I wish it hadn’t, but it did and I can’t just let myself forget such a huge part of me, whether bad or good, I can’t just forget, I won’t let myself forget.”

 

Fury nodded curtly in understanding. “I’ll tell your psychiatrist so that your sessions can be altered to your preferences, though perhaps there is logic in what you are being told, if you don’t stress your mind into remembering, perhaps the memories will come to you.”

 

Harry frowned in thought and he barely noticed as Fury and Coulson left him with the assurance that he would move to Stark Tower as soon as Clint was awake. He decided to give it a go. He had been trying to force his mind to remember traumatic and harrowing memories, perhaps if he took a step back and let his mind sort through them, the memories would indeed come to him instead.   

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Being around Harry constantly was wearing down his barriers. Clint couldn’t believe he had fallen asleep at all, let alone for most of the night and half of the morning. He had only woken up because Harry had fallen down the stairs, the loud banging and clattering and Harry’s loud and violent cursing could have woken the dead.

 

“Why didn’t you call me?” He asked desperately as he sat Harry on his lap, holding him tightly, one hand automatically falling to the maybe baby while the other one pressed Harry’s shoulder into his own body, fingers rubbing gently over the place on Harry’s neck that he had licked over when he had raped him, where he could have bitten if he had wanted to bond with Harry indefinitely, but he hadn’t been so far gone as to force bond an Omega to him, not ever. No Alpha was ever too far gone as to bond to an Omega without their knowledge and every single plea that Alphas gave in court of not knowing they had bitten an Omega, or that they had instinctively done it, or hadn’t known they had bonded to an Omega in heat, always fell through and the Alpha was always prosecuted very harshly.

 

“I’m fine Clint, it was only three stairs.” Harry said with a long suffering sigh, even as he held the leg that had given in on him so close to the bottom of the stairway.

 

“You could have really hurt yourself!” Clint admonished, his heart beating far too fast.

 

Harry rolled his eyes and tried to get up, but Clint’s arms tightened around him and the man stood up with Harry cradled in his arms like a child. Harry huffed.

 

“Put me down Clint. I’m fine!”

 

“No, just…just let me do this Harry.”

 

“Why?” Harry asked suspiciously.

 

Clint had promised Steve that he wouldn’t tell Harry the full details of what had happened on the rescue attempt until they were both safely in Stark Tower, but it was so hard now that they had the privacy, his conscience was burning to confess his crimes to Harry, knowing the little Omega had fallen down the stairs while potentially carrying his baby soured something inside him and he wondered if telling Harry he might be pregnant would help him be more cautious, or less.

 

“I just want to Harry. I was the one who saw what happened to you with my own eyes, the others saw it through a recording, I was there, I smelt that room, I took everything in, took you in and it’s made me so very protective, I don’t want to take anything away from you, least of all your hard earned independence, but I want to help you in any way that I can, in any way that you’ll let me.”

 

Harry sighed. “I promised Fury that we’d go to Stark Tower as soon as you were awake.”

 

Clint hated that too, that whenever he mentioned seeing Harry in such a state he closed up and changed the subject. He could understand to a point, but how was he supposed to tell Harry what he had done when Harry wouldn’t even let him talk about seeing him in that room.

He nodded in response to Harry’s statement and moved to wake himself up fully so that he could be on guard as they made the long trip to Stark Tower located in Manhattan. He hoped that he could hold himself together until he was around his team for support.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry glared at Clint’s hunched back as they made it into Stark Tower. Clint was carrying both of Harry’s bags, not letting Harry do it himself and Harry was angry about it.

Using a voice authentication password after identifying himself and Harry to something called Jarvis, they were let in to the tower and Harry was ambushed as soon as he set a foot out of the lift, still glaring at Clint.

 

“Harry, how are you?”

 

“I’m fine Steve, really. I’m going to kill Clint in his sleep, but I’m fine.”

 

“What has Hawkdick done now?” Tony asked, sauntering over with a grin, wearing a pair of ripped, patchy jeans and a washed out band tee-shirt.

 

“I can carry my own bags!” Harry told them seriously.

 

“Steve, Harry fell down the stairs this morning.” Clint shot over his shoulder as he went to put Harry’s bags in a guest room.

 

Harry cursed violently as the Mother hen swept him immediately off of his feet and set him on a stylish settee, Bruce coming to check him over.

 

“It was three stairs!” He hissed. “I slipped more than I fell; I went down on my arse.”

 

“Maybe we should take you to a hospital, just to be sure.”

 

Harry full out glared at Steve. “You just try to get me in a hospital now Steve, I’m not having it! I agreed to come live here so you could all watch over me because the Director wanted me too. I am here purely because I want to keep my job, so back off!”

 

“Leave him alone.” Natasha said sternly. “He’s right, nothing is going to happen to him from falling down three stairs, you’re all being ridiculous. You have to forgive them Harry, Alpha idiocy is like a terminal disease, you’ll never be rid of it.”

 

Harry snorted, but it didn’t stop the frown that crossed his face as Bruce’s hands lingered on his waist. It pulled something up in his mind, of when he had actually fallen down the stairs, hadn’t Clint’s hand lingered on his stomach as well?

He frowned harder and tried to think back, but between Steve’s overprotective worry and Tony’s excitement in showing off his tower, pointing to doorways and telling him where they led, he didn’t have time to think on it, or the energy to spare dragging through his own memories.

Apparently they were currently in Tony’s penthouse, which was at the very top of the tower, and was the main ‘entertainment’ floor, which really meant that it was the floor where all of them spent the most time together and was the only floor which had a kitchen slash dining room. The floor below the one they were on was where everyone else had rooms and if what Tony was listing off was any indication, this tower had absolutely anything and everything anyone could possibly need, though most levels of the Tower were dedicated to research and development.

 

“When you built this tower, why did you make so many guest bedrooms, it’s almost like you knew the Avengers would be staying over.”

 

Tony got a look on his face. “Fury said that you had read the mission reports on the Tesseract. You should know that after the battle with Loki and his aliens that I had to rebuild half the tower, I just rebuilt it differently to how it was before.”

 

Harry frowned as he tried to remember reading those reports. It sounded familiar, but it was like trying to catch smoke. He got close and then it just drifted away. He shook his head.

 

“I don’t remember.”

 

“That’s alright Harry.” Bruce assured him. “This is normal, your mind wants to shut down to recalibrate itself, it wants just a few hours where you aren’t forcing it to do something or to remember a memory. Your mind wants to go in one direction, but you keep dragging it in a different one, just let it go, just for a while and you’ll be fine.”

 

Harry frowned even harder before he stopped and sighed as he realised he was trying to get his brain to think through every word Bruce had said to him, maybe he _was_ bringing this on himself.

 

“Okay, I’ll try it your way Bruce. No one ask questions or anything that will make my brain work. I’m just going to stay here and not think.”

 

Everyone agreed and went about their own lives and activities, while Harry employed his limited knowledge of Occlumency once more and shut off the part of his brain that was questioning absolutely everything happening, from moving into Stark Tower with the Avengers, the behaviour of said Avengers, why they kept touching his belly, or if it was just a strange coincidence as they thought the rest of his body was damaged and likely to hurt him, the part of his brain that was trying to hunt down all the memories of his capture, the part that was analysing everything everyone said or did around him, everything. He just shut it off and didn’t think, coaching himself to breathe. He could do this; it was how he had coped through everything that had ever happened in his life. He breathed.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

“He’s doing it again.” Clint pointed out as Harry’s breathing stuttered; he stopped breathing for several moments, before sucking in a deep, gasping breath only to repeat.

 

“He’s fine Clint. He’s meditating.” Bruce said with a long suffering sigh.

 

He had been through this several times, the first time Harry had done so, it had panicked them all, but as soon as Bruce had established that Harry was deeply meditating, he dragged the others away to let Harry carry on. If meditating helped him feel better, helped calm him down and helped his mind reclaim the lost memories, then he was fine with Harry’s breath catching every now and then, it wasn’t doing him any harm. He was more worried about Harry finding the memory of what Clint had done before they had a chance to explain it to him themselves. It would look terribly bad if Harry found that memory before they explained, it would look like they were hiding it or covering it up to protect themselves.

 

“I know you’re worried, but he’ll be fine.” Natasha coaxed, trying to get Clint to stop staring at Harry.

 

“He won’t be if he finds the memories of his heat while he meditates.” Tony said as he came into the living area, wiping his dirty hands on an already dirty cloth.

 

Bruce sighed heavily as Clint swung around to look at Tony horrified, he hadn’t wanted to worry Clint about what Harry could unintentionally uncover during his quiet time.

 

“Is that what he’s doing?” Clint asked panicked.

 

“It might be.” Tony shrugged, throwing the dirty cloth into the bin and moving to his bar area and mixing himself a drink. “His mind has been so stressed since he woke up, he’s forcing himself to try to remember every single detail of every minute, it’s why he can’t remember anything, there’s a mental block and the more he presses on it, the tighter it grips him. If he stops pressing against the barrier and lets it come down on its own little by little, he’ll remember bits and pieces until he finally works it all out and remembers everything. I told you from the start that it wasn’t a good idea to keep it from him, he should have been told as soon as he woke up, not waited until he was more recovered or until the doctor gave the all clear or until he was here with all of us, he should have been told immediately, especially about the maybe baby.”

 

“I don’t want him finding out that way.” Clint murmured.

 

“Then tell him and soon.” Tony answered sharply as he took his drink and sat heavily next to Harry, who jerked out of his meditative state and looked at the older man owlishly.

 

“How are you feeling?” Bruce asked him gently.

 

Harry blinked several times, considering the question carefully, before he smiled softly.

 

“Good. I feel great actually. I’m tired though.”

 

“If you want I could show you to your room.” Tony said from beside him.

 

Harry nodded, not even fighting or shouting that he had slept for too long over the past two weeks. He let Tony help him to the lift to go down a floor, saying a soft goodbye to Bruce, Natasha and Clint, the only three that were still on the top floor.

 

“Are you really alright?” Tony asked as the lift doors slid closed on them.

 

Harry nodded. “I feel better than I have for the last week. The stress of being in the med bay bed all day, every day, being surrounded by doctors and nurses all the time, it got to me more than I thought it had. I saw home for a day before being pushed onto you like this and I guess I really did need to just shut my brain off for a while, if not to remember what happened but to stop me from being so stressed and pulled apart. I need to feel like me Tony, not like a victim or a survivor, I don’t want people surrounding me all the time, fussing over every step I take, I don’t want to be reminded what happened, oh the poor little Omega, what a tragedy, I want to be left alone to sort through my own mind and memories, I want to recover on my own. I can’t deal with Steve constantly hovering around me, or how Bruce treats me like glass, or Clint’s weird behaviour changes or Thor in general. The only people who seem to treat me like a person, like I have thoughts, feelings and opinions are you and Natasha.”

 

Tony threw an arm around him and gave him a hug. “I am an Alpha and I feel all protective and worried over you just like everyone else, but I’m a genius also, my mind runs quicker and more thoroughly than anyone else’s, which helps when it comes to making split decisions. It’s hard to explain in a way that you’ll understand, I know how and why it works, but it’s hard to get others to understand, but because my thought process is quicker, before I act I’ve already gone through several scenarios in my mind, when the others are pestering you and reacting to you falling or even coughing, their first thought is to help you, to protect you, but I’ve already had those baser thoughts and moved on to what will best suit or help you from your perspective. They don’t move onto that higher thought function quick enough so they stick with the protective urges where I can step back and let you breathe.”

 

“Thank fuck for geniuses.” Harry muttered as he leant against Tony.

 

“If they get too much for you, come find me in my work shop, it’s the very bottom floor, mine is the door on the left, Bruce’s is the one on the right.”

 

Harry nodded and yawned as they finally stepped out of the lift that had been on the right floor for at least five minutes and Tony led him down a hallway.

 

“That room’s Natasha’s, the one further down on the opposite wall is Clint’s. That door is Steve’s, the one further down and opposite is Pepper’s, you’ll meet her soon, she’s lovely and a Beta, so you’ll be getting some more people in your corner soon, Pep will beat away the nasty Alphas for you.”

 

Harry chuckled at that as they moved past Pepper’s door towards the end of the corridor.

 

“This is a bathroom, you might want to wake up before Thor, apparently he leaves the bathroom in a right state after his morning shower, must be something to do with being a godly Prince, we’re trying to domesticate him, but it’s slow going. This room is Bruce’s, that one is Thor’s and this one is yours.” Tony said happily, pointing to the door that was next to Bruce’s, but was closer to Thor’s room.

 

“Thank you Tony, you didn’t have to put up with me.”

 

“Hey, anyone willing to keep my secrets is cool with me. You go and get some sleep, you can eat after you wake up, I’ll try to keep the Capt. away from you if you sleep through breakfast, but I make no promises if you don’t show up for lunch. He’s the biggest Mother hen I’ve ever known.”

 

Harry chuckled as he opened his bedroom door and said a soft goodnight to Tony, who was already halfway back up the corridor and just waved his arm without breaking his stride or turning around. He flicked on the light switch in his room and shut his door softly, sliding the small and simple bolt lock closed. As soon as the door was closed and locked, his forced mask of calm crumbled and he pressed his back against the door, his expression one of horror as he slid down until he was sat on the floor with his arms wrapped tightly around his shaking knees.

He remembered everything; everything that had happened to him during his captivity, all of the questions, his responses, the endless torture and even the heat period he had slipped into whilst held prisoner and the strong, alluring Alpha who had come to help him, the Alpha who had mated with him. That Alpha had been Clint.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Happy Valentine’s Day for all you who celebrate it, here in Wales it’s already gone, we celebrate St Dwynwen’s Day on the 25th of January, though of course most here celebrate both holidays, because we’re greedy.  
> I will be updating all of my stories today, still writing one of them though so I need to get a move on, as a Valentine’s gift to you all. Have a wonderful day.
> 
> I hope you’re all still enjoying this, especially after the cliffhanger I’ve left you on, I’d say sorry, but I’m not all that sorry I’m afraid.
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	5. Barrier's Broken

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Dedicated to Jessica, who had a nasty fall from a horse, I hope you get better soon lovelie.
> 
> Last Time
> 
> Harry chuckled as he opened his bedroom door and said a soft goodnight to Tony, who was already halfway back up the corridor and just waved his arm without breaking his stride or turning around. He flicked on the light switch in his room and shut his door softly, sliding the small and simple bolt lock closed. As soon as the door was closed and locked, his forced mask of calm crumbled and he pressed his back against the door, his expression one of horror as he slid down until he was sat on the floor with his arms wrapped tightly around his shaking knees.  
> He remembered everything; everything that had happened to him during his captivity, all of the questions, his responses, the endless torture and even the heat period he had slipped into whilst held prisoner and the strong, alluring Alpha who had come to help him, the Alpha who had mated with him. That Alpha had been Clint.

Chapter Five – Barrier’s Broken

 

Harry didn’t sleep at all as he stayed in his room overnight, thinking, stressing his mind again so soon after getting all of his memories back. It wasn’t his brightest move, but he couldn’t help it. He couldn’t understand why he hadn’t been told.

He swallowed as he remembered the conversation with the doctor soon after he had woken up. He had asked to be put back on his suppressant tablets, he hadn’t remembered he had gone onto a heat period at that time, he hadn’t realised until tonight that he had gone onto his heat period, he had been told he was lucky, that he hadn’t had one. The doctors had outright lied to him. He hated S.H.I.E.L.D. agency medics.

They had told him that his adrenaline levels would interfere with the suppressants, that his body wouldn’t absorb the tablets with such high levels of the hormone in his blood so there was no point in him taking them yet, but they had lied to him, blatantly lied. It was because none of the suppressants, tablets, liquid or injection, could be taken when pregnant, they damaged the placenta.

Harry’s mind flashed to Bruce’s hands hovering over his waist, always hovering over his waist and when he had fallen down the stairs, Clint’s hand had been on his belly, over the baby he had forced onto him.

Perhaps they weren’t so concerned for him after all, just the baby he was carrying, was that why he had been moved into Stark Tower, not for his safety, but for the baby. He swallowed harshly, he wondered where Director Fury and Agent Coulson stood, but then he rationalised that Agent Coulson had been kind towards him even before he had been abducted. He calmed himself at that, he still had his job. He could get through this. He would come through it fine, like he always did. He had been at rock bottom before and he had crawled his way back up again, he could do it again easily. He only needed himself.

Dragging himself to the large bed against the one wall, Harry took in his surroundings for the first time. He was obviously in a guest bedroom, but it was set out to be a permanent room, there was a large, empty bookcase, plush carpet and a faux fur rug, tasteful paintings on the walls, two matching bedside tables, each with their own lamp and a small, two seated settee against another wall.

It was a very beautiful room and Harry knew immediately that Tony had not designed or decorated this room, or any room in this tower. It had probably been done by some up and coming interior decorator who had been paid far too much to do it.

Harry went through his bags until he found the silver, three photographed, hinged frame. In one side of the frame was Sirius and Remus, it had been taken at Grimmauld Place before his fifth year and despite everything, the two men had been caught in mid laugh together. The opposite frame held a picture that Remus had taken on the sly, of Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred and George, also at Grimmauld Place before his fifth year.

They all had cleaning rags in their hand, but Fred and George had started a water fight and it was chaos from there. Remus had whistled and as all of them stopped trying to push their rags into each other’s faces and snapped their heads around, worried that it was Mrs Weasley who had caught them, Remus had taken a photo. Harry loved the look on everyone’s faces, from horror, to surprise, to guilt to wide-eyed shock, but all of them were happy, they were all amused and having fun, it was right there behind all of their eyes. He missed them; he missed all of them, why did they have to die? How could every single one of them have died in the war that he alone had survived? Why was it always him? Why did it always have to be him?

The middle photo was of his parents and it was one of his favourite pictures of them. His Mother was holding him gently in her arms wrapped in a white blanket, the back of the photo said he was three weeks old. His Father’s left arm was around his Wife’s waist tightly, protectively, his right arm was under hers, supporting Harry’s slight weight gently, lovingly, a big hand coming out from under his Mother’s arm and cradling the back of his head lightly.

Not many Fathers were happy to have Omega sons; he had heard horrible stories of disownment and abandonment, of abuse and battery, all because their son had been born an Omega, something so far out of their control that couldn’t be stopped or helped. But seeing the look on his Father’s face, the love and adoration that was as clear as day in his Father’s eyes, Harry knew, even without Sirius and Remus assuring him so, that his Father had loved him regardless of his born social rank.

Alpha, Beta or Omega, his Father hadn’t given a damn and had loved him as a person regardless and had given his all to protect him, had made the ultimate sacrifice and given his life to give his Beta mate and Omega son just a bit more time to escape. It made dealing with all the Alpha dicks out in the world easier, knowing that his Alpha Father had loved him so much and that if he had been alive; he would have protected him for life, would have protected him from any and all Alphas, and even Betas, who thought that Harry was beneath them or was good for nothing other than a fuck. Though he was forever glad that Vernon and Petunia had both been Betas and that Dudley had been a born Beta, it made going through his juvenile heat periods as a teenager easier with no Alpha around to make him beg.

The stronger, real, breeding heat cycles didn’t start until an Omega was between seventeen and twenty, which made everything that much easier at school, but there was a reason that Alphas and Omegas were separated from each other in the sixth and seventh year, Harry has seen that when Ron and Seamus had come into their adulthood in the N.E.W.T years. Neville and Dean had both been Betas, as well as Hermione, but Harry had been the only one in Gryffindor who had been an Omega that year and he was overall grateful that he hadn’t started his full heat cycles until he was nineteen and already on suppressants thanks to S.H.I.E.L.D.

His very first adult heat cycle had been as a captive torture victim, tied up and bound, his body already broken, his mind vanished under mating instincts that the heat had drowned him in and he had absolutely no hope of controlling and his very first Alpha mate had been a man who was supposed to have saved him.

Harry swallowed and hugged the photo frame to his chest. That wasn’t fair, Clint _had_ saved him and really, wasn’t it better to have been mated by Clint than any of his abusers and torturers? A full body shiver rolled down his spine and his leg jerked painfully. He bit his lip when a sob escaped, he breathed in deeply. He could do this, he didn’t need anyone else, he just needed to breathe.

He was fine, he was alive, Clint may have mated him in heat, but it couldn’t have been helped and he wasn’t bonded, he touched the part of his neck where a bonding bite would rest and his skin was still smooth and unmarked. Clint hadn’t taken that from him at least and he was so thankful.

He was too confused to be bonded at the moment, baby or not, he didn’t want to be bonded at just twenty years old. He didn’t want to tie himself to one Alpha male for the rest of his life at just twenty years old. It was far too soon to make that sort of life choice, it wasn’t like a marriage, which was divorceable, an Alpha/Omega bonding was for life, really and truly until death does us part and Harry didn’t want to hurt Clint, let alone kill him to sever a mate bond.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X   

 

Clint could barely eat his lunch as Harry remained a no show, for all his claims that he had slept too long already, if he was still asleep then they should have taken him off of the sedatives a week ago, because it seemed he slept better and longer without them.

 

“This is the second meal he’s missed today, not to mention that he missed dinner yesterday.” Steve fretted, barely touching his own food.

 

“He’ll be fine Capt.” Tony sighed; eating his own lunch like nothing else mattered.

 

“He need’s something to eat.”

 

Tony dropped his fork and sat back from the table. “Jarvis, where is Harry?”

 

“He is in his room, Sir.”

 

“What is he doing in his room?”

 

“He is sleeping, Sir.”

 

“He’s sleeping Steve.” Tony said to the super soldier. “Do you really want to wake him up to force him to eat, knowing perfectly well that you’ll force him to sleep again after he’s eaten? Don’t try to deny it. He’ll be fine, he needs more sleep than he needs food anyway, food is fuel, sleep is healing. Let him heal before he starts filling up on fuel.”

 

Steve clenched his hands together, but he nodded and picked at his own lunch, his worry for Harry encompassing almost everything else. He knew Harry was hurt, knew he was suffering and he just wanted to help in any way that he could, he wanted Harry to be better and to be happy again, the young man had been suffering even before he had been abducted and seeing him being treated like dirt by other Alphas, and even Betas, in the workplace made him want to prove that not all Alpha’s thought that Omegas were sex toys or something to wipe their feet on as they passed. He just wanted to help.

 

“Do we have to do anything today?” Clint asked.

 

Natasha shook her head as she stood to put her plate in the sink; it was Steve’s turn to do the dishes. “Not unless there is an emergency, but I am going to the workout floor if you’d like to join me to blow off some stress.”

 

“Harry…”

 

“Is perfectly capable of navigating the tower by himself.” Tony cut in firmly as he finished his own lunch. “Nowhere in this tower is off limits to any of you, though I do prefer you to leave my workshop, bedroom and personal bathroom alone, that applies to Harry as well, he knows not to leave the tower, everything else is up to him, including where he goes, why, when and who with. Give him some space and privacy, none of you would like it if I started hovering and hanging all over you all day. He needs space.”

 

“Tony’s right.” Natasha told the unconvinced Alphas. “You’re going to drive him back into a hospital bed if you don’t leave off him. He’s already admitted to feeling stressed, panicked and overwhelmed, he needs his own time and methods to get him past what happened, you’re all making him feel worse and to be honest it’s pathetic watching you all clamour him, if you had any brain cells you’d realise that you’re all being detrimental to his recovery, but you just don’t see it.”

 

There was silence after Tony and Natasha had finished speaking as the remaining Alphas thought over what had been said, the thickest skulls to get through would be Thor and Steve, both of them were ages old and set in their beliefs and fully believed that they were right, but them being right or not was not going to help Harry any and they needed to realise and understand that as long as they pushed, pulled and forced their views on Harry, he wasn’t going to get better or recover.

 

“Sir, Master Harry has stirred from his bed.” Jarvis’ cool voice cut through the tension.

 

“See Capt., he’s perfectly able to wake himself up without anyone calling him and I’m sure he’ll find his way up here when he’s ready.” Tony grinned, standing up and putting his plate in the sink.

 

Tony was happily proven right when not twenty minutes later the soft ding of the lift sounded and a showered and dressed Harry came into the kitchen with a thoughtful frown on his face.

 

“Are you hungry?” Tony asked. “We made you something just in case you woke up.”

 

“Thank you; I could eat a manky cat.” Harry answered softly, he still sounded tired even after the amount of sleep he had already gotten. It was worrying, but Tony forced the urge to clamour Harry and settle him back into bed down hard. Harry was capable of getting himself to bed if he felt like it.

 

“I wouldn’t recommend it.” Tony grinned instead as he patted the chair he had just vacated and served Harry happily when he sat down.

 

“Did you shower by yourself?” Steve asked with a swallow, he had tried not to ask, but his concern won out.

 

“No, my invisible friends helped me.” Harry answered with an eye roll. “Of course I showered by myself. The very last thing I want now is for anyone to see me without clothes on. I had enough of that when I was tied to the ceiling in that steel room.”

 

“You’re using clothes as a barrier.” Bruce commented softly.

 

“I know, but I feel…” Harry shook his head and breathed out heavily.

 

“Go on, you can say it. Vulnerable.” Tony coaxed, knowing the feeling well from his time spent in the cave in Afghanistan hooked up to a car battery, the only thing keeping him alive. “Say it.”

 

Harry swallowed and nodded. “I feel vulnerable out of my clothes. I don’t like how open and defenceless I am when I’m naked. I don’t want anyone to see me naked, even if I have to crawl in and out of the shower by myself and sit in the bottom of the stall to clean myself, I don’t want any help.”

 

Steve nodded at that, letting it go, but urging Harry to eat, which he did. He managed to eat almost as much as Thor, but with more manners and a slower pace.

Natasha had dragged away a reluctant Clint, Bruce had gone down to his lab and Tony wanted to go to his workshop, but he was very, very reluctant to leave Harry with just Thor and Steve.

 

“How are you feeling?” He asked Harry, hating that he sounded like an Alpha dick, but he wanted Harry to be alright without him.

 

“I’m fine.” Harry said automatically, patting his belly, which had distended quite a bit until he really looked at least two or three months pregnant.

 

“Congratulations friend!” Thor boomed laying a big hand over Harry’s belly.

 

Harry laughed happily. “The doctors told me that that would happen for a while yet, it’s because my stomach was shrunken because I hadn’t been eating properly before I was taken and when I was stuck there, they didn’t feed me anything, so any decent amount of food now is going to make my stomach bloated for a while, until a time when my stomach stretches to accommodate more food.”

 

“You’re having a food baby.” Tony snorted in amusement, smirking.

 

Harry grinned and nodded. “It’ll go down in an hour or so.”

 

“Come on, you can come and wait it out with me in my workshop if you want too.”

 

“What do you do in your workshop?” Harry asked as Tony pulled him to his feet.

 

“All sorts of stuff, come and see.”

 

“My plate.” Harry complained.

 

“It’s Steve’s turn to do the dishes.” Tony assured him as he tugged Harry further away.

 

They ran into Natasha and Clint on the way to the lift and Clint’s eyes didn’t leave Harry’s distended stomach.

 

“It’s the food.” Harry told him coolly, his hand lowering to cup the bulging belly. “Starvation does terrible things to me, though Thor has already congratulated me.”

 

“It’s his food baby; he’s going to call it Thor’s Bane.” Tony put in as he bashed the button to call the lift.

 

Harry chuckled. “Thor’s Bane? Why is the baby Thor’s?”

 

“He cooked.” Natasha told him.

 

“But I read in one report that you all complained about Thor’s cooking, it had made you sick during an emergency.” Harry frowned.

 

They all shuddered. “Let’s just say as an alien Prince, he was not used to cooking anything. He’s gotten much better over the years, though Bruce’s cooking will always be the best. Though we order take out very often, mostly for dinner.”

 

“Do you cook Harry?” Natasha asked. “You can join the rotas when you’re better if you aren’t completely terrible.”

 

“Oh I love cooking.” Harry smiled. “I never used to, but since coming to America and getting my own place and my own space, cooking what I want I’ve rekindled a new love for it. A man has to eat; he can’t live off of take away food forever.”

 

“Tell that to Tony.”

 

Harry chuckled and stepped into the lift, keeping Natasha between him and Clint, he didn’t think they noticed, but he wasn’t comfortable being in such a closed space with two Alphas, one of which was the father to the baby they didn’t know he knew about.

He’d have to see what wizard treatments or supplements and things pregnant Omegas took and look into buying some, maybe he could owl St Fiacre’s again for information. He needed all the help he could get and he’d have to sort out his house too if he was going to be living there with his baby. He’d need to make it into a steady home, not just a shaped pile of brick to keep out the weather.

Thankfully Natasha and Clint got off soon enough; Natasha tugging a reluctant Clint out of the lift, Harry swallowed a shudder. Why did Clint always want to be around him now? In the hospital, when Harry had wanted him around to thank him for saving him, the man barely came, but now he was out of the hospital and knew what the man had done, Clint couldn’t leave him alone. It was strange and he couldn’t understand it.

Tony tugging on his arm brought him out of his thoughts and he automatically smiled at the frowning man in front of him, happily following as quickly as his leg would let him, ignoring Tony’s arm around his lower back, the man was a genius, there’s no way he didn’t know what had happened or the results of what had happened, that meant he was in on it all too. He had been lying to him as well, everyone in this tower was lying to him, lying by omission maybe, but it was still lying to him.

He had decided last night, while he was still awake and thinking long into the early hours of the morning, that he would wait and see what they did, he would wait and see if they were planning on telling him or if they were going to keep him in the dark and pretend that nothing had happened, that one of their own hadn’t mated and impregnated him on a rescue mission. He wondered if the latter was true, and they were all going to pretend it hadn’t happened, what they were planning to do when he had the baby, would they tell him then? Would they let him think it was the baby of one of his captors? They couldn’t honestly think they could ignore or get out of this situation, so what the hell were they planning to do?

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Bruce was worried about Harry as the twenty year old once again slipped into his own mind, staring at a single point outside of the window, the considering frown back on his face. It had been a week since Harry had arrived at Stark Tower and he had slipped in neatly and easily, never bringing attention to himself, happily sitting in the same spot and reading his books for hours on end, Steve usually joined him, but Harry liked spending most of his time with Pepper, who he had met, befriended and got on famously with, or with Tony.

Bruce was sure Harry was slowly figuring out what had happened to himself, the amount of times he slipped into his own memories in this last week proved that the meditation was working, Harry was remembering more and more, about the reports and projects he had worked on, more personal information about the Avengers, more of what had happened to him in that steel room, it was only a matter of time before he uncovered the full truth of what had happened that day and he had urged Clint to tell Harry, but the man’s courage was failing. It seemed impossible to conceive that Clint couldn’t face up to his own actions, to what he had done, but the insecurities he held from his youth and facing Harry’s reaction to what he had done kept him from telling the twenty year old, which was potentially disastrous if Harry figured it out on his own as he had tried to explain several times to Clint over the past week. All of them were on edge and were urging Clint to tell Harry, hissing at him that Harry deserved to know the truth and that every day where he didn’t tell him was risking Harry finding out himself.

 

“Bruce?” Harry asked softly. “When can I go back on my suppressants? I don’t want to slip into preheat with a tower full of Alphas. It’s coming up again soon.”

 

“The doctors told you that your hormone levels were too high.” Clint said slightly too fast.

 

“No, I couldn’t take them because my adrenaline levels were too high, now I’m not being sedated all the time; my body isn’t running on adrenaline to fight it off. My levels of adrenaline are not going to affect the suppressant anymore. I want to go back on my tablets… _today_.” Harry said forcefully with a glint in his green eyes.

 

Bruce was at a loss as to what to do or what to say. If Harry went on the suppressants he could end up killing or deforming his own baby, if indeed he was even pregnant, it had proven impossible to get a blood sample from Harry without drawing suspicion and they weren’t willing to take the chance if he was actually pregnant, they had to tell him and he gave a pointed look to Clint, who had gone very pale.

 

“Enough is enough; you have to tell him Barton. Now.” Stark announced as he stood from his bar area with a glass in hand.

 

“Tell me what exactly?” Harry cut in politely, his green eyes gone steel, his hand clenching around his glass of water. No one dared to move or make a sound.

 

“Tell me _what_?!” Harry repeated more forcefully, glaring at all of them, before the sound of breaking glass and Harry flinching, suddenly moving to hold his bleeding hand as he cursed explicatively, had Bruce moving to help.

 

He caught the towel Tony threw at him and after making sure there was no glass in the cuts through Harry’s palm, wrapped the towel around it.

 

“There…there is something about your rescue that we…that _I_ didn’t tell you about.” Clint told Harry hesitantly.

 

“You were the only one in that building; you’re the only one who knew what happened on that rescue mission. I was unconscious.” Harry hissed. “What happened?!”

 

“Things got more complicated than I first thought.” Clint said after a heavy, convulsive swallow. “Everything was smooth until I entered the room with you. You were on heat Harry, that room was swimming in your heat pheromones. Please believe me when I say I couldn’t control what happened next.”

 

Clint looked imploringly to Harry, who stood as tall as his spine would allow, his face blank, his eyes furious and steely, even with a blooded towel wrapped around his hand. He did not say a word, he didn’t urge Clint on or tell him to stop or give any indication of what he wanted to happen or hear next.

 

“I…I succumbed to my baser instincts and I mated you Harry. You can’t go onto the suppressants because we’re unsure if you’re pregnant or not. I’m so sorry, I never would have chosen for it to be this way. I swear.”

 

Harry didn’t move, didn’t show any outward signs of shock or disgust, but then they knew Harry was good at pretending from the recording they had all seen from his time in captivity. He had been solid, unshakable. He may have screamed his throat bloody and writhed in his agony, but he had not talked, he hadn’t given those men a single piece of useful information to use against the Avengers, against himself, against S.H.I.E.L.D or against America. He had hung there and taken absolutely everything that had been dished out and he had emerged as this wonderful, if slightly odd, twenty year old man that he was slowly getting to know and very much enjoyed the company of.

 

“Please say something Harry.” Clint nearly begged.

 

“I know.” Was all Harry said, staring at Clint heavily.

 

Bruce felt his stomach sink. Harry had figured it out himself; he shared a look with Tony, who had also understood Harry’s words and their damning meaning.

 

“You know?” Clint repeated, his expression confused.

 

Harry nodded. “I figured it all out last week, it all clicked into placed. I am pregnant, I did the test three days ago and it came back positive. What I want to know, is why the fuck did you not tell me as soon as my eyes opened?!”

 

Harry’s raise in volume startled them all into blinking as he turned from calm and collected to absolutely furious with burning eyes.

 

“Where do you people get off treating me like this?!” He shouted at them all, glaring at them all and Bruce felt less than an inch big. “Didn’t you think I would have liked to have known that my first ever adult mating was while I was in captivity, off my fucking head from torture, protecting the lot of you no less?! Didn’t you think I’d like to know that I was possibly, and I’m now confirmed to be, pregnant! I could have had everything sorted weeks ago if you had just TOLD ME!”

 

“Just calm down Harry.” Steve tried to urge.

 

“Do not even dare tell me to calm down!” Harry hissed, his eyes flashing as he tried to burn a hole through Steve’s head. “I have been waiting for even a hint that you were going to tell me, but I had to trick an explanation out of you by asking after my suppressant medication. You people are sick!”

 

“We wanted to tell…”

 

“No! Do not tell me anymore lies! I don’t want to hear how you wanted to tell me but couldn’t, how you were ordered not to or any other lie the doctors have already used! I don’t want to hear it! You could have told me if you had wanted to and you didn’t!”

 

“We did want to tell you, we were leaving it to Clint, it was his mistake to make up, it was his place to tell you what he had done; not ours, only he’s a coward.” Tony cut in.

 

“I trusted all of you, how can you treat me this way? What would you have done if I hadn’t figured it out myself? Were you going to let me carry on my life thinking that the baby I carry was the result of my torture, that one of my captors had done that to me?”

 

“Of course not!” Steve replied appalled.

 

“Then why didn’t you tell me?! Why wait this long? I’ve been awake for almost a month! I’m a month pregnant Steve!”

 

“It’s my fault, not theirs Harry. I should have told you, but I couldn’t face what I had done.”

 

“I don’t like being kept in the dark over my own life Clint. You were playing with my life and my baby’s life! What gives you the right to decide what I know about my own life and when?” Harry demanded.

 

“I’m sorry; I _was_ going to tell you.”

 

“While you were running around after yourself, deciding yet another day I wasn’t allowed to know that there might be a baby inside me, I could have done irreparable harm to myself and my baby! I’ve been trying to get better, but it’s no secret that I can’t eat a lot and I regularly forget to eat if not reminded, did you think on that while you were deciding not to tell me? Do you think if I had even the smallest doubt of whether or not I was pregnant I would have dared walk up and down stairs with a gammy leg? If you had just told me everything would have been fine!”

 

“I know that now and I’m sorry.” Clint replied choked.

 

“Not good enough.” Harry stated coldly. “It’s not good enough that I’ve had to wait for so long for you to finally get around to telling me and even then I had to force it out of you!”

 

“Please let me make it up to you, I only wanted to do what was best.”

 

“Telling me would have been for the best!”

 

“The doctors said it could destroy your mind.” Steve said softly.

 

“Well I’ve known for a week Steve and I’m still mentally abled. Do you really think so little of me as to think that finding out I had been mated and impregnated would be the thing to break me? Those _people_ threw their all at me, I survived through all of what they did to me and you think this, _this_ of all things, would be what had broken me?”

 

“We’re not saying what you went through wasn’t terrible, that you weren’t strong and you dealt with what happened really well, we were just worried that maybe this would be one thing too much.” Bruce tried to explain.

 

“I don’t want to hear it, I don’t.” Harry said and he turned around and walked away.

 

“Where are you going?” Clint asked desperately.

 

“To bed.” Harry shot back snappily.

 

“It’s four in the afternoon.”

 

“I don’t care.”

 

Harry went down in the lift and Tony sighed. “Jarvis, keep an eye on him for me, I don’t want him leaving the tower.”

 

“Of course, Sir.” The response was immediate and Bruce sighed, he looked at Clint and wanted to hit him, he wasn’t a violent man, so maybe that explained why Thor hit Clint on the back of the shoulder and sent him flying to the floor. Thor wasn’t truly a violent man, but he was much more aggressive than Bruce allowed himself to be.

 

“I told you that you should have told him sooner.” Bruce told Clint before leaving for his own lab and he hoped that Harry would be alright, he really liked the strong, stubborn, independent twenty year old and the last thing he wanted to do was push him away or isolate him when he was already so very isolated from everyone around him. He’d give him some space and then go and see him, hindsight was always a rueful thing, he knew now that he should have told Harry right from the off, no matter what Steve said about it having to be Clint because of the sake of  honour or waiting for Clint to actually pull his shit together. He should have taken the boy aside and told him and now it was too late, now they could have alienated Harry for good.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Next chapter is going to carry on from this chapter, but it will also flashback to the week that was missed in Harry’s POV so don’t worry about the time skip in this chapter, you won’t miss a thing.  
> But it’s exciting still for me, especially now that they know that Harry knows! I do feel sorry for them, they really were in a lose-lose situation, but I’m not too sympathetic, Harry’s right, he wouldn’t care which one of them had told him as long as he was told, I never planned to have Clint turn into such a coward, it just sort of happened unfortunately, but I doubt that’s much comfort to Harry.  
> To clear something up before I’m asked though, Harry thought he was certain that he was pregnant from everyone’s reactions, he didn’t just instinctively know or anything, he was basing his realisation on the behaviour of everyone around him, but they were just being cautious in case Harry was pregnant because they didn’t know for sure either, Harry confirmed this with a pregnancy test, as mentioned in this chapter, we’ll be seeing that in the next chapter though, so don’t worry about missing Harry’s reaction. But they now also know that Harry is pregnant with Clint’s baby, their reactions to this will show up in the next chapter once it’s sunk in a bit.
> 
> I hope all of you readers enjoyed this chapter! Chapter 6 should be up soon but Chapter 69 of The Rise of the Drackens will be up first, I just need to get the sex scenes finished and then I’ll be done with it.
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	6. Repentance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last Time
> 
> “I told you that you should have told him sooner.” Bruce told Clint before leaving for his own lab and he hoped that Harry would be alright, he really liked the strong, stubborn, independent twenty year old and the last thing he wanted to do was push him away or isolate him when he was already so very isolated from everyone around him. He’d give him some space and then go and see him, hindsight was always a rueful thing, he knew now that he should have told Harry right from the off, no matter what Steve said about it having to be Clint because of the sake of honour or waiting for Clint to actually pull his shit together. He should have taken the boy aside and told him and now it was too late, now they could have alienated Harry for good.

Chapter Six – Repentance 

Harry sat on the settee in his bedroom and rubbed his belly gently. He was feeling queasy, but he wasn’t entirely sure if it was the pregnancy he had recently found out about, or because of the confrontation with the Avengers about their treatment of him and the baby he carried.

He had still been hoping, even though he knew it not to be true, that they had known nothing about it, or at the least some of them hadn’t known anything about it, but he had known, not even that deep down either, that he had been clutching at straws. They had all known and had all chosen to keep it from him.

He wondered what to do next; did he even want to go back to S.H.I.E.L.D? Was it too dangerous for him to leave? He sighed. He just wanted to go home and be on his own, but the best he could do at the moment was lock himself up in his room in Stark Tower.

He doubted very much that he would be allowed to leave, not now that it was confirmed that he was carrying the baby of one of the Avengers. It made him such a huge target if anyone found out he had the baby of an Avengers team member, he and his child would constantly be in danger, but could he take that risk of staying for protection and confirming he had the baby of one of the Avengers? Or should he leave and hope that no one would ever find out. He didn’t know what to do, he didn’t know what would be the best or the safest thing to do and he had finally cracked and let the Avengers know that he knew what had happened which only served to confuse him more.

They had been waiting for Clint to tell him personally, but for whatever reason, the man had seemed unable to do so. It seemed to have mattered a great deal to Steve and to Thor that it was Clint personally who told him, likely because Steve came from a different time and Thor was raised differently, where one took the consequences of their actions. He had read the report of Thor being banished to Earth without his powers or his hammer, that must have been a horrible experience for him at the time, being thrown onto a different planet without any of the ways he knew of to protect himself, alone and unknowing of when he could go home. But the others? Natasha, Tony, Bruce and Clint himself.

Harry sucked in a breath. Pepper. He had become very fond of the efficient redhead, who was very dangerous in her own right and had helped him deal with the overprotective Alphas when she had come back from her business trip to New York. He hoped so very much that Pepper wasn’t in on it too; he wanted at least one person to have not known.

 

“Jarvis?” He asked softly like he had seen the others do on occasion, wondering if the A.I. system would even answer him.

 

“Yes Master Harry?”

 

Harry smiled happily as the voice of the A.I. surrounded him.

 

“Is Pepper here please?”

 

“Miss Pepper is currently in her rooms Master Harry, she is reading.”

 

Harry grinned ruefully as the A.I. had guessed his next question before Harry had thought of it.

 

“Do you think she’d mind being disturbed?”

 

“Miss Pepper never minds Master Harry.”

 

“Thank you Jarvis, please just call me Harry, no master business.”

 

“As you wish…Harry.”

 

Harry was back in a good mood as he slipped out of his room and counted the doors down the corridor. He remembered her room because it was closest to the bathroom on the side away from it.

He hesitated slightly, before biting his lip and knocking softly, half hoping that maybe she hadn’t heard him. He wanted to know if she had known, but he didn’t at the same time. He was confused and he was just about to flee back down the corridor when the door opened sharply and Pepper’s stern look slid away into a smile and she invited him inside.

 

“Please come in and sit down Harry, I thought for a moment you were Tony, but he wouldn’t have knocked. What can I do for you?”

 

Harry sat on Pepper’s settee and she sat next to him, moving her book to her bedside table.

 

“I…I don’t know how much anyone has told you…”

 

“About your captivity? Tony showed me some of the footage to help me understand.”

 

“But not all of it?” Harry asked curiously.

 

Pepper shook her head. “No, I saw bits and pieces, excerpts from the footage; I think only top S.H.I.E.L.D agents and the Avengers saw the whole footage and it took them almost the entire time you were in the medical bay to do so. Why, what did you want to talk about?”

 

“I’m pregnant Pepper. I slipped into a heat period while I was caught and I’m pregnant.” Harry said without hesitation, not beating around the bush, watching her reaction closely.

 

The uncontrollable widening of Pepper’s eyes told him that she hadn’t even known that much and a small burst of hope flared within his chest.

 

“Oh Harry, I didn’t know, I’m so sorry, have you got everything you need? I’m sure I could get you anything you needed.” She told him, plucking her Starkphone nimbly from the bedside table and started scrolling through it.

 

“I’m only a month pregnant; I ordered the tests and some books for the information.”

 

“The parcels that arrived for you.”

 

Harry nodded, not telling her that the first package to arrive was full of salves and potions for his leg and scars.

 

“I did the test three days ago and it confirmed I was pregnant.”

 

Pepper touched his hand and when Harry didn’t flinch away, she held his hand tightly.

 

“You must be feeling so pulled apart, I can’t believe Tony didn’t tell me!”

 

“He didn’t tell you because it wasn’t one of the people who captured me that impregnated me Pepper.”

 

“Then who…”

 

“The only other person to get into the building.”

 

“Clint?!” She asked, her eyes going saucer wide, her hands clenching reflexively.

 

Harry nodded. “He was caught in my heat pheromones, he mated me and then got me out, I feel so torn, I want to beat the shit out of him Pepper, but he risked his own life to save mine, he was shot four times trying to get me out, he could have been killed or permanently crippled trying to get me out. I don’t know what to do. If I scream and hit him, it seems ungrateful, but I don’t want to thank him either.”

 

Pepper blinked and she understood his dilemma in an instant. She stood up and she strode to her door, stomping on her high heels.

 

“You leave this to me, I’ll sort this out.” She said sternly.

 

Harry trotted after her as fast as his aching leg could manage, he got into the lift just as the doors were closing and he panted against the wall.

 

“Just stay behind me alright Harry; I’ll make Clint regret he ever started breathing.”

 

Harry couldn’t breathe enough to talk, but as soon as Pepper arrived on the main floor of Tony’s penthouse, she strode off and Harry could only hobble after her, wondering what she would do. He didn’t know what he wanted her to do.

He had to stop when his leg started having an ‘episode’ but he could still see Pepper approaching Clint, who was sat morosely on the settee.

 

“How dare you!” She shouted before she reached him and Harry smiled as he watched the Avengers turn around and recoil away from an angry Pepper.

 

Tony rushed to intercept her but she just pointed at him and he backed away holding his hands up.

 

“Pep, it’s not what you think.”

 

“It’s not what I think? What _I_ think Tony? No! This is what Harry thinks, when were you going to tell me?!”

 

“You sound just like Harry.” Clint said emotionlessly, bottling himself up.

 

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he is pregnant with your child, the baby you’ve forced on him under rape charges!”

 

Clint went white and then green, Pepper backed off when she saw his blue eyes widen, his biceps and forearms bulging.

 

“You’re the first person to say that out loud.” Clint whispered, not looking away from whatever he was looking at in front of him. “I did rape him.”

 

“It was an accident Pepper.” Tony told her, taking her arm in a hand.

 

Pepper regained herself, firmed herself as she caught sight of a pale, ash white Harry standing by the lift.

 

“No, I know you, you would have found everything out, S.H.I.E.L.D would have had Harry’s heat schedule on file, you knew that there was a chance he would be on heat. You sent an Alpha into that building knowing that there was a tortured Omega inside who could have been on heat!”

 

“It wasn’t that simple Pepper, Clint was the only person we could get in the building, we tried everything to get through the doors, but they were too well covered.” Steve told her. “We tried to get Natasha into the building to help, but we’d lost contact with Clint, we didn’t know where he was or what was happening, when he came back online, he had already found Harry and had reported not smelling any pheromones, we didn’t think there was any need to send her in after that.”

 

“But what happened, if Harry was on heat, and he obviously was, then his pheromones would have saturated the entire building.”

 

“There was an industrial air conditioner in the room with him.” Clint said his eyes too wide and his breath too short. “It was behind the heavy steel door, I pushed it open and I could see Harry, the room was cold, but I thought it was a torture technique, I couldn’t smell anything. I reported it in and stepped into the room. It took me three steps to notice the air conditioner, four to realise that I could smell heat pheromones and my mind was just gone. I regret what I’ve done so much and I’ll never be able to say sorry to him enough for what I’ve done to him, but believe me when I say I couldn’t control myself.”

 

“You are trained to deal with these situations!” Pepper refused to relent.

 

“Nothing I have ever gone through, in real life or simulation, has ever trained me for that degree of pheromone in such a high stress situation!” Clint argued. “I regained enough of myself after only one mating to realise what was going on and what was happening and I got us both out of there, lesser dominants would have stayed for the entire heat period, putting Harry in further danger. I did what I could given the situation!” 

 

“Why was the level of pheromones so high?” Pepper asked curiously.

 

“Those people had Intel they shouldn’t have, they knew the Avengers were coming and they were busy rigging their hide out to prevent us getting access.” Tony told her. “I think they left Harry locked up alone for the entire time, letting his pheromones accumulate in that one room so when Clint entered, he was hit with a concentrated dose.”

 

“That and it was my first adult heat.” Harry put in softly, his nausea and pain lessened now as he approached them carefully.

 

“How could it have been your first adult heat?” Bruce asked. “You said that before, but adult heats come between seventeen and twenty, but anything over eighteen is really very uncommon, seventeen is the average and more than eighty percent of Omegas have their first heat at seventeen and ten percent have them at eighteen. There have only been less than a hundred documented cases of an Omega having their first adult heat at twenty and nearly all of them were victims of very severe childhood abuse.”

 

Harry looked away. “There is a lot you don’t know about me Bruce, a lot S.H.I.E.L.D doesn’t know. I felt when I would have had my first adult heat. I was seven months into my nineteenth year.”

 

“You were in S.H.I.E.L.D’s employment at nineteen.” Tony said softly, his mind working far quicker than anyone else’s.

 

“I was already on the suppressants. My capture was the only time I haven’t taken them, I’m always on time for them, I’ve read reports on Omegas in the field who forgot them or their injection wore off while they were undercover and I swore I wouldn’t be like them, only now I am.”

 

“We’ll get you through this Harry.” Pepper promised. “If you need anything, you come to me and I’ll get it for you.”

 

“Thanks Pepper.” Harry smiled. “But I just want to try and move on and forget that this ever happened.”

 

“What about the baby?” Clint couldn’t help asking.

 

“This is my baby.” Harry told him with a glare he couldn’t quite help. “Under the Omega Protection Act, that explicitly says that any baby created out of duress, rape, coercion, force or blackmail by an Alpha, that Alpha then has no right to the Omega or the resulting baby created, you have absolutely no right to my baby or to even call my baby yours, accident or not, remorseful or not. If you touch my baby, I’ll break your neck.”

 

A shiver rolled down the entire length of Clint’s body and he fell back against the settee and Harry almost felt bad. Almost, but not quite. Clint had saved his life, but he would not allow the man anywhere near his baby.

He needed to plan and he needed to get away, he couldn’t stay here. He realised that now. He could easily find another job, could easily buy another house and set up a home for him and his child, the hardest part would be getting out of Stark Tower and away from S.H.I.E.L.D and all its associated parties, but for his child he’d try his hardest to do so.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Clint felt like slime, no, he felt worse than slime, he felt disgusting and dirty and so ashamed of himself. He swallowed hard and bitterly, Harry was enforcing the Omega Protection Act, which meant he had absolutely no rights to his own child. He flinched and settled back into his bed. Harry was just down the corridor, but he didn’t know if he should go and plead his case or just leave Harry alone.

He had never felt hesitation like this before, had never not known what to do in any situation, not since he was a child and had had his older brother Bernard ‘Barney’ Barton looking after him.

He didn’t want to be kept from his first and only child, the only child he was ever likely to have. He wanted as much access and time with his child as possible, but if Harry legally invoked the OPA laws and put on the baby’s birth certificate that the baby’s Father was just an Alpha who had violated him, there was nothing he could do and he would never have access, not even supervised visits, with his own flesh and blood.

He covered his face with his hands and wondered if Tony and Bruce were right, if it would have been so much better if he had just told Harry, but he had thought he had more time to come to terms with what he had done first. He didn’t exactly go around raping Omegas often, this was the first and he couldn’t stop thinking of himself as a rapist. He had raped someone and every time he thought about it bile slipped up his throat and he had to give a hard swallow to get it back down into his clenching stomach. When Pepper had told him so bluntly to his face that he had raped Harry, he hadn’t been able to breathe; she had been the first person other than himself to say it to him.  

He drew in a shuddering breath. He had listened to himself and not told Harry once before, he wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice. He stood from the bed and gathered his courage, he just hoped Harry didn’t scream or anything, Thor’s room was the closest to Harry’s and he didn’t fancy taking on the God of Thunder tonight.

He took a deep breath and knocked lightly on the door, just in case Harry was sleeping. He wanted to explain himself, but he didn’t want to wake Harry up if he was sleeping.

He held his ground, still hearing his team calling him a coward, and he knocked again. Harry opened the door almost as soon as he stopped knocking. He was sleep tousled, but wide awake, so he had likely been tossing and turning in bed, but not actually sleeping.

 

“What do you want?” Harry asked.

 

“I…” Clint breathed in deeply and centred himself. “I need to explain to you Harry.”

 

“I know what happened Clint; I don’t need you to explain it to me, I understand what happened perfectly.”

 

“Please, just let me explain Harry, not about what happened, I’m sure you’re sick to death of hearing about that, but at least let me explain why I didn’t tell you sooner.”

 

Clint was just pleased that Harry was even considering it, a thoughtful frown on his beautiful face, he had fully expected the door to be slammed shut on him.

 

“Fine, come in, but if I tell you to leave, I want you to leave immediately. I have Pepper and Natasha on speed dial.”

 

Clint didn’t think on why Harry thought of women protecting him before men, he was sure Harry had all of them on speed dial, including Steve, Thor, Tony and Bruce, all of whom would run to help him, but it was with Pepper and Natasha he threatened with, not with any of the strong, physically imposing men. Maybe Harry thought he wouldn’t fight a woman? If that was the case then perhaps Harry didn’t think him a complete piece of slime after all.

Clint was not offered the settee or the bed, so he stood, even as Harry sat on the edge of the settee, his knee jerking helplessly. Clint felt bad for him, he knew how damaged the muscles and nerves were and how painful it jerking out of his control would be.

 

“Well?” Harry snapped through his thoughts and he took a deep breath, knowing how hard and painful this would be for himself to admit, but he didn’t care anymore, he just wanted to make things right with Harry.

 

“I didn’t tell you because I was afraid Harry. I know I have absolutely no good excuse for keeping it from you, I know that nothing I can say will ever be a good enough excuse for you, but it’s the truth regardless. I was afraid. I have never, ever done anything like that to any Omega before, honestly I keep the hell away from any and all Omegas, you read the reports on the invasion of Manhattan, you know I was taken over by Loki and was forced to do things I never would have dreamed of doing, I almost killed everyone I work with, everyone I ever felt any sort of connection with or feelings for, I almost got Agent Coulson killed with the storm I led on the Helicarrier and being caught in your pheromones was a lot like that and it terrified me. I had lost my mind again, lost my free will of my own actions and it reminded me so acutely of when Loki took me over that I panicked. I hated feeling so out of control, so lost. What I did to you was terrible Harry, I know, but if I had had any choice in the matter, I would never have done it, never. No matter what people are always saying about Alphas, we’re not all like that, I do not go searching for Omegas on heat to take advantage of, you can bet your last dollar that Steve would rather eat his own eyeballs than do anything to disrespect any Omega and Tony is so afraid of being sued for everything he has, he has every one-night stand screened for their born rank to make sure he doesn’t bring back any Omegas. None of us meant to hurt you Harry, I’m sorry.”

 

Harry was quiet for a long while before he responded.

 

“That’s all well and good Clint, apologising might make you feel better, might help ease your guilt and let you sleep at night, but how does it help me? I’m still pregnant; I’m still going to be forced to have a baby I didn’t want at just twenty years old. I’m not ready Clint; I don’t feel ready for this!”

 

“We can all help you if you’ll let us Harry. You don’t have to be alone. If you don’t bring up the Protection Act, I can help you with the baby, you can be sure Steve and Tony, Bruce and Thor, Natasha and Pepper will all help you, all you have to do is let us help. We want to help, _I_ want to help Harry, to make up for the botched rescue attempt, please let us help you.”

 

Harry was clearly thinking and Clint didn’t want to spoil it by saying something that would ruin it, so he bit his tongue and waited on eggshells for him to say something.

 

Harry sighed. “I’ll think about it, but nothing you can ever say or do will ever make me forgive you for what you did to me.”

 

“I wouldn’t expect anything less, truly I wouldn’t, I just want the chance to prove I’m not some sort of lowlife, scumbag who runs around looking for Omegas in vulnerable states to take advantage of.”

 

Harry nodded. “I will think about it Clint, but right now I want to sleep on it.”

 

Clint took the hint and he left happier than when he knocked on Harry’s door, he felt lighter, even though Harry would likely never forgive him, he hoped they could patch things up and maybe move on from this.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry still couldn’t sleep after Clint had left, even though he was tired. He had been adamant that he was leaving, but now he wasn’t sure it was the best idea. His mind was racing, trying to work out any ulterior motives Clint could possibly have. He was just giving himself a headache.

He placed a hand on his still flat belly, wondering if the baby was Clint’s ulterior motive, he had said not to invoke the Omega Protection Act which would leave him no legal or otherwise claim to the baby, was Clint trying to take the baby from him or did he just want the chance to see the child once it was born?

He growled and tossed in the bed again, he didn’t know what he was supposed to think or do, he didn’t know what to do and he had absolutely no one to ask for their opinion or for their help, he didn’t know what to do.

He still remembered the pregnancy test he had owl ordered from St Fiacre’s, he had sat in the bathroom in the middle of the night, praying that none of the Avengers woke up and needed the toilet because he didn’t think he could move as he clutched the little plastic stick in his hands.

When it had flashed up pregnant, three weeks, he had backed up into the sink and almost fallen into the shower bath. He had had a small panic attack in the bathroom, grabbing Jarvis’ attention, who asked him coolly if he should get Master Tony or Master Bruce.

Harry had swallowed hard and shook his head, biting out a few breathless no’s. He had clutched that test so tightly the casing of it had almost cracked. He had forced himself to breathe and splashed cold water onto his face. He had made sure he had all of the packaging for the test, leaving no evidence behind, before he rushed to his room and locked himself in. He shoved the test and the box into the depths of his suitcase and he had not slept at all for the rest of the night, his mind racing with thoughts and his heart heavy with feelings and emotions. It was then that he knew for sure that Clint had impregnated him and he had started getting his head around himself having a baby, four days on and he still hadn’t managed it.

He hadn’t been able to wait for the pregnancy test, and it was really small, so he had ordered it via owl and had stayed in his bedroom the day it was due to arrive so no one would see the owl.

He had immediately ordered books and information, prenatal potions and anything else the Healers recommended for male pregnancy from St Fiacre’s, but insisted they post it via Muggle means and the very large package had arrived for him a few days later and had been brought to him by Steve, who was very curious about what he was ordering and how.

Harry had smiled and told him it was none of his business, to which the olden time, honourable man had blushed and immediately agreed that it was none of his business and wandered away, Harry would have felt bad if it wasn’t so funny and he really wanted to keep the antenatal and pregnancy things secret and hidden.

Harry tossed in bed again and thought back to the last week of his life, he hadn’t done much except hide pregnancy books under novels he had already read and sit quietly in Tony’s living room ignoring all of the others, though it was nice to be among people who liked reading in the quiet too, Steve would sit with a book and read or with his sketch pad drawing, Bruce would sometimes join them with science text or paperwork and it was peaceful and Harry enjoyed it, even if learning about everything he could expect during his pregnancy upset and distressed him.

Harry flumped onto his back and just decided to go and get something to drink, warm milk or something. He had never particularly liked milk, having never been allowed it in childhood, but the book said it was good for the baby so he was willing to force it down for the sake of his baby.

He padded softly down the hallway and pressed the call button for the lift, spending a moment before it arrived looking over his shoulder for anyone coming out of their rooms, he really didn’t want to be escorted to the kitchen and watched obsessively before being escorted back to his room like a toddler.

He made it to the kitchen and poured a mug of milk, putting it in the microwave and heating it slightly. He didn’t know Tony’s rules on drinking in the bedrooms or taking cups from the kitchen, so he sat at the table to drink the mug of warm milk.

He got lost in thought and soon he just put his head on the table to think, his thoughts making him feel heavy and worn down, but he must have ended up falling asleep because the next thing he knew Steve was touching his shoulder gently and he jerked awake, scrubbing a hand over his face and blinking around him.

 

“Uh?” He groaned sleepily.

 

“It’s half six in the morning Harry, are you alright?”

 

“Mmm. I must have fallen asleep.” He said through a yawn.

 

“Do you want to go to bed and sleep for a little longer, or would you like breakfast?”

 

“Breakfast sounds nice.” Harry said with a smile. “I don’t mind making it; it’s about time I helped chip in.”

 

“It’s alright, I’ve got it. It’s my turn on the rota to cook breakfast.”

 

“Sit down and let me do it.” Harry glared at Steve, who swallowed, not in fear or anything stupid like that, but probably swallowing down a dozen reasons why Harry shouldn’t be allowed to cook or go near sharp utensils or the oven.

 

Harry happily went and searched through the cupboards and fridge, happy in the knowledge that he knew what everyone liked by now and started making thin pancakes for crepes, he made sure the fillings were all fruit to stave off the worry or the lectures he was bound to get, plus Tony had a thing for blueberries, sometimes the only way to get the man to eat anything was to make it blueberry flavoured.

 

“These are really, really good.” Steve told him as he served himself peach and apricot crepes from the plate and bowls Harry had put them on, each bowl had a different fruit filling, from diced strawberries, blueberries, diced peaches and apricots, slices of kiwi and grapes and thin apple slices. There was a huge variety of fresh fruit available in the kitchen and Harry suspected it was Pepper’s doing.

 

“I did say I was a good cook, I wasn’t lying.” Harry grinned ruefully as he took a thin pancake from the plate stacked high with them and filled it with blueberries, folded it up and ate it before Tony woke up and hived them all away.

 

“What’s in the oven, it smells lovely.”

 

“Muffins, blueberry ones, cherry ones and chocolate ones for Natasha and Pepper. Girls like chocolate.”

 

“You do too I bet.” Steve grinned and Harry smiled unrepentantly back as he stuffed a kiwi and grape crepe into his mouth, chewing thoughtfully. It worked surprisingly well and he made and ate another one.

 

Natasha swayed into the room with Clint, the both of them dressed in gym clothes and covered in drying sweat.

Natasha immediately went for the diced strawberries, folding them into the pancake and eating it happily, Harry watched Clint subtly, wanting to know a bit more about his baby’s father, wondering what filling he would choose. He was slightly surprised that Clint went for an unusual apple and kiwi filling.

Tony came out very soon after with Bruce in tow from down in the labs. They came over to the table to join them. Tony saw the bowl of blueberries and was pulling it towards himself before he had even sat down, he was still talking to Bruce about whatever they were doing, Harry smiled as he realised it was an almost unconscious thing for Tony to immediately go for the blueberries.

 

“These are really, really good, you’ve out done yourself Steve, I told you practice would make you better at cooking.” Tony said as he took another huge bite out of his blueberry crepe.

 

“It wasn’t me who made them.” Steve said, nodding his head towards Harry, who was happily making his fruit filling of strawberries, blueberries and kiwi all artisan before folding it up and stuffing it into his mouth.

 

He noticed everyone watching him and he swallowed with a frown. “What?” He demanded.

 

“These are really good.”

 

“I told you I was a good cook. I wasn’t lying.”

 

“These are better than good cook level. These are amazing!” Tony praised and Harry couldn’t help but smile.

 

“It’s fine, I’ve got to get more fruit into my diet anyway for the baby.”

 

“There have to be more blueberries though.” Tony frowned as his bowl was empty already.

 

Harry wondered if Tony even knew where the blueberries in his own kitchen were kept, but as he peered around looking for them, it seemed obvious he had no clue.

 

“You really don’t know your way around your own kitchen?”

 

Tony shrugged. “I only put a kitchen in here because Pepper said I should, I’d order take out every day if it was up to me.”

 

“Thank fuck it’s not up to you.” Harry said with an eye roll as he took the empty bowl from Tony, took two punnets of blueberries from the huge fridge, of which there at least eight punnets left, washed them, dried them, tipped them into the bowl and handed them back to Tony, who grinned so thankfully and happily at him that Harry had to grin back.

 

The oven beeped to let Harry know his muffins were done and he hurriedly stuffed another bite of his breakfast into his mouth, chewing as he pulled on oven gloves to pull them out.

 

“Did you make your own muffins? Seriously, you can make muffins?” Tony demanded. “Did you make blueberry ones?”

 

Harry held a blueberry muffin out to Tony who took it from him and bit into it, even though it was still hot.

He actually moaned around his mouthful and Harry plated up the three flavours of muffins and took two blueberry muffins before giving the entire plate to Tony when he wordlessly demanded it.

 

“These are better than those muffins at that coffee house I like!” Tony grinned. “I make Happy go out every morning to get me coffee and blueberry muffins from that coffee place.”

 

Harry remembered the paper bag of blueberry muffins that Agent Coulson had given him the morning he had been taken and wondered if Tony was the friend Agent Coulson had been referring to, the man was the Avengers handler and was present on all their missions, so they could be classed as friends, but he didn’t see Tony giving up anything blueberry flavoured willingly. He sighed if only he had stayed at work that day, perhaps things could have been very, very different, hindsight and all of the rest.

 

“I can make you more if you’d like. I enjoy baking.”

 

Harry took one muffin of each flavour and peeled a mouthful off of each one, tasting them critically and smiling as they all met his expectations.

 

“If you ever feel like baking, feel free to feed me blueberry muffins.” Tony told him, ruffling his hair.

 

Harry rolled his eyes and ate the rest of his muffins, drinking freshly made orange juice, before eating another crepe.

It was then that Thor made an appearance, wearing next to nothing and Harry couldn’t help but stare appreciatively, partly wishing Thor had forgone the boxer shorts too.

 

“Thor, how many times, you need to get dressed before coming to the table!” Steve chastised. “There are women and an Omega present!”

 

Thor looked bashful, his cheeks and upper chest going pink and Harry grinned.

 

“Oh don’t get dressed on my account.” Harry grinned. “I’m rather enjoying the view. Sit and eat Thor, have a muffin before they go cold.”

 

Thor did as was asked, sitting in the one of the only seats available, which were very luckily on either side of Harry, who was very happy at the seating arrangement.

Thor was distracted by the food and Harry was distracted by the mountain of muscle beside him.

 

“Harry, you need to eat.” Clint told him, Harry didn’t hear the hint of jealousy and anger, but everyone else did.

 

“I’ve eaten enough.” Harry said distractedly, not taking his eyes from an oblivious Thor, who was happily complimenting the food as he ate what was left.

 

Tony chuckled behind him and shoved his shoulder, unfortunately, or rather fortunately, Harry wasn’t expecting it and went into Thor, his hands sliding over bulging muscles and sliding down to Thor’s huge thighs. Harry went pink, but he couldn’t stop grinning.

Thor caught him and held his shoulders in huge hands and demanded to know if he was alright, putting his face close to Harry’s and asking if Tony had hurt him.

 

“Oh no, I’m fine. How did you get such huge muscles?”

 

“I am a warrior of Asgard. I need to be in the best of strength I can be to protect those around me.”

 

“I can feel that.”

 

A chair scraped over the floor suddenly and Clint stood up and strode away quickly. Harry watched him go curiously, his mind analysing his gait, his body language, the stiffness of his back and shoulders and how he didn’t look back not even once. It made Harry so very curious, if Clint’s only concern was the baby, then why did he care what, or who, Harry did?

 

“What’s his problem?” He huffed, even though he believed he already knew, but he happily turned back to Thor and fed him more food, his hand placed on one of those solid thighs. He refused to feel guilty; he had nothing to feel guilty for, but this did make him burn with curiosity to test this new development, no one but Malfoy had ever called him a Saint after all.

 

\---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Busy, busy week last week, but I’m back now with chapter six, chapter seven will be up soon, I’m thinking Sunday or Monday and chapter eight will be up next week as well hopefully, fingers crossed for that one, so Damaged Bodies will be getting a chapter boost.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you’ve all enjoyed this chapter! Until the next one lovelies,
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	7. Accusation and Interrogation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last Time
> 
> A chair scraped over the floor suddenly and Clint stood up and strode away quickly. Harry watched him go curiously, his mind analysing his gait, his body language, the stiffness of his back and shoulders and how he didn’t look back not even once. It made Harry so very curious, if Clint’s only concern was the baby, then why did he care what or who Harry did?
> 
> “What’s his problem?” He huffed, even though he believed he already knew, but he happily turned back to Thor and fed him more food, his hand placed on one of those solid thighs. He refused to feel guilty; he had nothing to feel guilty for, but this did make him burn with curiosity to test this new development, no one but Malfoy had ever called him a Saint after all.

Chapter Seven – Accusation and Interrogation 

 

“Where are you going though?” Steve asked him for the umpteenth time.

 

“Out!” Harry replied once again. “I’m going stir crazy in this house!”

 

“Let me go with you.”

 

“No.”

 

“Where are you going?”

 

“Out!” Harry yelled as he stepped out of the building and got into the taxi he had called, slamming the door on Steve and telling he driver to take him to a shopping centre.

 

“Alpha problems?” The man sighed, Harry was happy to scent that he was a Beta and a bonded one at that.

 

“A very over protective Alpha.” Harry rolled his eyes.

 

“If he bothers you too much, call the enforcers, they’ll sort him out.”

 

“Oh it’s not that bad, honestly, he’s just worried. The enforcers don’t need to be involved; they’re only for emergencies and very bad Alphas, not ones who are just being overprotective.” Harry hurriedly assured. The last thing he wanted was for Steve to be taken away and locked up by the enforcers, who were a branch off of the police force, only they dealt solely with Alphas and they were a lot less tolerant than most police officers.

 

Harry let the silence fill the taxi, not feeling the need to speak, he got out and paid for his ride and went into the shopping centre, intent on buying some things he needed.

Of course he would get distracted by the baby shops though, he couldn’t help it. He had easily ignored the first four he had walked past, what with them being coloured in pink, yellow and beige, displaying cute little baby clothes and female maternity wear, but the fifth was aimed purely at pregnant male Omegas and he licked his lips debating with himself before slipping inside the soft blue and white shop and wondering if it would hurt to buy just a few baby things, even if he was only a month gone.

 

“Can I help you?” A happy man asked him, Harry relaxed as he sniffed the obvious Alpha to find his scent claimed him as bonded.

 

“I…I think I’m here a bit prematurely, I’m only a month pregnant, but I’m so unsure about everything, I just wanted to see the things I might need.”

 

The man smiled indulgently at him and stepped around the counter. “I’m Killian; my Omega Paul is pregnant with our second child. He’s in the back napping with our Benji, but he had a crazy idea when he was pregnant with him about setting up a baby shop aimed exclusively at male Omegas because he got so frustrated when he walked into a baby shop and had to pass through all the women’s maternity wear and women’s things to the back corner of the shop where there was a very small, limited selection for males, you’d think shops would have more of a selection, but no, apparently they don’t think male Omegas care about what they’re wearing when pregnant and it would be a waste of money, Paul and I thought differently, so he wanted to set up a purely all male shop. Of course I called him crazy and then bought this place for him to run and I have to say it’s been a huge success, male Omegas care more than other pregnancy and maternity shops think.”

 

Harry smiled as Killian threw a friendly arm around him and pulled him further into the shop.

 

“Whatever you need, we can get it for you, I swear it, we’ve been working very closely with maternity designers for a larger range of maternity wear for males, we’ve been working with real pregnant male Omegas to find out what they need and stocking it and we’ve even been speaking with paediatricians and nurses to help Paul write his own books to help other Omegas.”

 

“I’m not sure what I need yet, I’m not even showing, but I’m not sure on anything I have to do or what I should be eating or anything.”

 

Killian nodded. “Okay. Books and information first then, but as long as you’re eating healthy, lots of fruit and vegetables, and eating unhealthy things in moderation then you’re not doing anything wrong. Don’t think just because you’re pregnant you can’t have your favourite meals or snacks, even if it is the occasional take out or chocolate cake because you can.”

 

Harry was led to a bookcase filled with pregnancy and child care books and he happily realised he had none of them, so he picked up one of each.

 

“There’s no need to go overboard.” Killian told him with a laugh.

 

“You should see the amount of books I’ve already got; this isn’t overboard, not yet. I just want to do everything right.”

 

“As long as you use common sense, there’s no wrong way.” Killian told him with a laugh.

 

“I’ve been accused before of not having much common sense.” Harry answered with a fond, yet painful reminder of Hermione, he was sure that was why he was reading so much now and turned to books for answers in her absence, because it would have been what Hermione would have done, it helped him feel better and closer to her, even though she was dead and gone.

 

“This is all going to be expensive. I wouldn’t want to leave an unbonded Omega out of pocket.” Killian said worriedly.

 

Harry sighed. “I’m not bonded no, but I’m…living with the baby’s Father and I do have a job, a very high paying one too, I have a lot of money to waste without leaving myself out of pocket, I promise.”

 

“The pregnancy would be much easier on you if you bonded to the baby’s Father.” Killian told him seriously.

 

“I’m not ready to be bonded.” Harry confided softly.

 

“No one is ever ready to bond.” Killian said. “I was absolutely terrified when Paul shyly asked me to bond to him. I refused the first time and Paul thought I didn’t want him enough to bond myself to him for life, I almost lost him through my own fear, luckily I realised quite quickly what was going on and I begged him to forgive me and bond to me.”

 

“Of course I said yes.”

 

Harry turned to a doorway in the back where a rounded man stood proudly, he was tall, almost as tall as Killian who was over six feet, handsome and very obviously pregnant and happy to be, his loose shirt clearly showing off his bonding scar.

Killian went to embrace his Omega and kissed him lovingly and possessively, laying a heavy hand on the swell of Paul’s belly.

 

“I was just telling this gentleman that everyone is terrified when they bond themselves to someone.” Killian answered an unasked question.

 

“Oh, no Omega anywhere has ever gone into a bonding without being terrified, I’ll challenge any Omega who says otherwise, Alphas are terrified of bonding as well mind, Killian was, it’s a huge commitment for both parties involved, a lifelong thing, you have to put your whole trust in just one person and you have to trust them to care for you, to protect you and to love you and your children for the rest of your lives, it’s a huge step, but it’s one that I have never regretted.”

 

Harry grinned at the two loved up men and turned to look at the little baby onesies to give them a bit of privacy. He had to laugh when he found the Avengers clothes for babies; the Ironman bodysuit in particular caught his eye. Tony would get a huge kick out of it.

 

“I love those.” Paul told him with a grin. “Benji was in all of them, the Captain America ones are the peoples favourite, but I think Ironman is just as good, he lives right here in this city you know, it’s nice knowing there’s someone around close by when the shit hits the fan. It’s why I feel so safe living here, knowing the Avengers are here to protect us.”

 

Harry smiled sadly, unfortunately he knew exactly what sort of pressure that comment and ones like it could cause, he had had the fate of the entire wizarding world and Muggle Britain, resting on his own shoulders and the weight had almost brought him to his knees, he had been too young, he hadn’t been ready, no one had cared as they threw him out into a war to protect themselves just because a little glass ball had said he was the only one who could defeat Voldemort.

There had been times he had thought it was impossible, when the war had seemed endless and hopeless as every enemy he cut down was replaced by more, but he alone had survived out of everyone he had known. Only him and he had grieved and mourned as the media went ballistic around him, as photos and memories of survivors who only knew him by name offered up every tidbit they could remember about him in battle and all he wanted to do was shut himself up and mourn, but he wasn’t allowed that luxury, he hadn’t even been able to go to the graveyards where his friends and family had been buried without being hounded, the media had no shame when it came to him and he had had to leave, he had packed up everything of sentimental value, packed a few clothes and fled to the airport and he had gotten on the first flight to New York, where he had been able to mourn in peace, even though he couldn’t visit the gravesites he hoped his friends and family understood and were there with him on the days or nights where he spoke to them and let out all of his thoughts and feelings on the war.

Harry took in a deep breath and picked up one of each bodysuit and rested them over his books, trying not to let his darkening mood show to the two happy, loving people behind him.

 

“Wait, are these the right size? I have no clue what size my baby will be.”

 

“That’s alright, these ones go right up to ten pounds, if a baby of yours comes out bigger than ten pounds, I’ll give you a full refund or an exchange for a bigger size.” Paul said with a smirk.

 

Harry grinned at him. “Thanks.”

 

“What else do you need?”

 

“I’m not sure. I just had to get out of the house, so I decided to come shopping. I have no idea what I need though.”

 

“You’re not showing so you must be in the first trimester, under two months.” Paul said sucking on his lip watched happily by his bonded mate Killian.

 

“I’m only a month pregnant, I found out four days ago.”

 

“And since then you’ve gone ballistic?” Paul nodded understandingly.

 

“A bit. I’ve gotten so many books and I’m already on my prenatal stuff.”

 

“That’s good, prenatal nutrients are very important for a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby, but I think you have everything you need for now, but don’t hesitate to come back if you need something else.”

 

Harry nodded seriously as Killian rung up his purchases and Paul packed them into a bag for him. Harry paid happily and waved goodbye to the nice couple, making a mental note of the name of the shop and where it was located so he could come back when he needed to in a few months.

He didn’t stay out for much longer, he had only wanted to get out for a few hours, he had bought some things, gone to three book shops and by now he was sure he was being followed by someone; he touched his wand on his forearm and breathed out in relief.

He slipped around the corner of the shopping centre and stayed where he was, pretending to look in the window of the clothes shop.

He felt someone standing just on the other side of the pillar and he poked his head around it to see Natasha and he gave her a wry smile.

 

“Why are you hiding and following me?” He demanded.

 

“I’m making sure you aren’t in any danger and I wasn’t hiding, if I had not wanted you to see me, you wouldn’t have seen me.”

 

Harry sighed heavily. “I can’t even go shopping without being followed.”

 

“No, because we still haven’t caught the people who were behind your kidnapping.”

 

“I can protect myself!” Harry insisted, the mentally added ‘now that I have my wand’ was left unsaid.

 

“We just want to be sure.”

 

Harry huffed. “Fine, I was about to head back home anyway, I’m done.”

 

“What have you bought?”

 

“Don’t you know?”

 

Natasha shook her head. “No, I didn’t catch up to you until I found you in the book store; you had several bags by then.”

 

“Just some baby things mostly, I want to know as much as I can.”

 

“Want to grab an ice cream?” Natasha asked randomly and Harry was thrown off slightly and he thought about it.

 

“Alright.”

 

“What’s your favourite?”

 

“Chocolate, but I fancy plain vanilla at the moment.”

 

Natasha nodded and they walked over to one of the food courts and Natasha ordered a strawberry and raspberry ripple double cone for herself and a double vanilla for Harry.

Harry thanked her and bit into his ice cream where anyone else would have licked at it, he didn’t suffer any sensitivity in any of his teeth and he very rarely got brain freeze so he found it easy to bite ice cream.

Natasha directed him to a car and Harry slid in with her and his bags.

 

“This is Tony’s favourite car and his personal driver Happy.” Natasha told him.

 

“So no ice cream drips in the car?” Harry grinned as he clicked his seatbelt in one handed as the car pulled off.

 

“Not unless you want to volunteer to be Tony’s personal human test subject.”

 

Harry chuckled. “I think he’d like a human test subject if Pepper would let him get away with it.”

 

“She never would.”

 

Harry shook his head. “Thank fuck for Pepper.”

 

“You know you hurt Clint the other morning.”

 

Harry paused mid bite and stiffened right up, turning to glare at her through furious eyes.

 

“I hurt _him_?” Harry demanded. “I know you’re close to him and one of his friends, but I don’t think he has a right to be hurt!”

 

“I disagree.”

 

“Disagree all you damn well want, I couldn’t give a shit about him or what hurts him!”

 

“Did you have to be all over Thor, just to taunt him?”

 

“Contrary to what any of you might believe, I wasn’t ‘all over Thor’ as you put it, because Clint was there. I did it because I was comfortable and having an Alpha flaunt himself in front of me was too good an opportunity to pass up, I was teasing Thor more than anyone else, do you think if I walked around in a pair of shorts that not a single one of those Alphas would make a comment?” Harry demanded.

 

“So you do what every Omega around the world accuses the Alphas of doing every day? Only it’s fine for you to harass them but not the other way around.”

 

“There is nothing wrong with light hearted teasing, but yes, when that goes from teasing to harassment then there’s a problem, I know when enough is enough, most Alphas don’t. If Thor had given a single indication of discomfort or told me to stop I would have, would an Alpha do the same?”

 

“It upset Clint.” Natasha evaded.

 

“I don’t give a stuff if he got upset, but if a gorgeous Alpha sits next to me near naked, then yes I’ll tease him. Thor happens to be a very good looking, very muscled Alpha, he’s very physically perfect and if he carries on coming down to breakfast in just his shorts, I’ll continue to tease him until he tells me otherwise or I get bored.”

 

“If Clint did the same?”

 

“I’d leave the room; I have no want to see him wearing anything less than a full outfit. Besides he’s definitely no Thor and no Steve either. I’d bet Bruce and Tony were more muscular than him.” Harry said spitefully, thoroughly upset by Natasha’s inquest.

 

“So you’re shallow? Just interested in the packaging?”

 

“No, but I would like an Alpha who could at least protect me and there’s nothing wrong with being attracted to a nice body.”

 

“Clint saved your life!”

 

“Yes he did, and he impregnated me without my consent or knowledge at the same time.” Harry hissed back.

 

The car pulled to a stop and Harry forced himself out of the car before Happy could open the door, he threw his partially eaten ice cream away and stormed into the Tower with his shopping bags.

He slammed the buttons for the lift and growled as he went past the floor where his room was and right up to Tony’s floor, he had a hunch that Tony and Jarvis were involved with overriding his destination.

 

“How was your day?” Tony asked happily, before his face went worried and analytical when he saw Harry was obviously angry and upset. “What happened?”

 

“Why are you people following me?!” Harry demanded.

 

“No one’s followed you; we’re all still here despite most of us wanting to run after you.” Steve told him his face scrunching up in confusion.

 

Harry blinked, they all looked concerned and confused, even Clint.

 

“You didn’t know?” Harry asked calming down.

 

“Know what?”

 

“That fucking evil bitch followed me!” Harry hissed pointing in the general direction of the lift.

 

“Pepper?” Tony questioned surprised.

 

“Pep…what, no! Natasha.” Harry said. “You really didn’t know?”

 

“She said she was going to the gym floor.” Tony scowled. “Jarvis, did Natasha go to the gym floor?”

 

“No Sir, she left the building two hours ago and arrived back with Mas…with Harry four minutes ago.”

 

“So she didn’t tell you what she was going to say to me or why?”

 

“No, what did she say?” Steve asked.

 

“Nothing.” Harry huffed, blowing out a breath, there was no need to get angry with them, despite the earlier trust issues, he could see that they were telling the truth this time at least.

 

“It obviously upset you.” Bruce said concernedly.

 

“It’s fine, she’s entitled to her opinion of me, I wanted to know if any of you knew, but I can see that you didn’t, so drop it please.”

 

“What did you buy?” Tony asked a few moments later, offering a change of topic.

 

Harry grinned and dug in the baby bag to find the Ironman bodysuit. He put the bags down and held it up for Tony to see.

 

“What do you think?” He asked with a grin.

 

“I love it; I think it’s the best thing a baby can wear.” Tony grinned with a head nod.

 

“I saw it and thought it was cute, the salesman assured me it was a best seller.” Harry chuckled as he let Tony inspect it. “Though this one was cute too.”

 

Harry dug in the bag and dug out the Captain America bodysuit, showing it to the room.

 

“You had to go and ruin it.” Tony pouted exaggeratedly.

 

Harry chuckled. “I like it, I also like that they’re sort of unisex. Not that I think it matters too much. The Hulk onesies were sold out sorry Bruce, though I’ve reserved one to pick up when they get more stock it, it seems the Hulk is a very popular choice.”

 

Bruce looked embarrassed and Harry grinned lopsidedly.

 

“Where are the infant garments dedicated to the mighty Thor?” Thor demanded.

 

“They were not unisex Thor, they are definitely for little boys, if I have a boy, I’ll buy one, but if I have a little girl, I’m not putting her in a bodysuit that says ‘I have a mighty hammer’ across the front of it, actually, saying it out loud I don’t think I’ll put a son of mine in one either.” Harry scowled as Tony burst out laughing. “I don’t think they thought it out very well.”

 

“No, I don’t think so.” Bruce smothered a laugh behind his hand. “How are you feeling Harry?”

 

“My leg aches, but not half as much as it has been, I think the muscles are getting stronger. Other than that and being interrogated and chewed out by a woman I don’t know and don’t particularly like, I’m fine.”

 

“What did she say?” Clint asked, looking faintly pale. Harry happily ignored him and dug through his shopping bags. “It was about me then.”

 

“Why else would a woman who has known me for all of five minutes corner me when I couldn’t escape and accuse me of all sorts?” Harry bit back coldly.

 

“I didn’t ask her to do anything, I swear.” Clint told him insistently, looking imploringly at him.

 

“Then tell her to back the fuck off. I don’t care if you think I’m shallow or vain or petulant or whatever, I don’t care, you can all think what you like, but I don’t want to hear it.”

 

“I don’t think you’re any of those things.” Clint said hurriedly.

 

“Well obviously your partner seems to think you believe differently, now I’m going to my room, today has worn me out.”

 

“You haven’t had dinner.” Steve interrupted.

 

“I couldn’t eat right now Steve, but thank you anyway.” Harry answered as he packed up his stuff and headed for the lift, a hand rubbing his churning belly, perhaps the ice cream hadn’t been such a good idea after all.

 

Harry made it to his room and kicked off his shoes, stripped off his shirt and fell onto his bed, sighing, leaving his bags on the floor. He crawled under his duvet to get warm, fully intending to get comfortable and read some more of the current pregnancy book he was reading before getting a quick shower and changing for bed, but he got too comfortable and he fell asleep easily without even getting out of his jeans.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry woke up suddenly and he didn’t know why until his stomach lurched and he kicked his twisted duvet from his body and scrambled out of his room and into the bathroom, only just managing to shut the door and reach the toilet before throwing up noisily and messily.

His vomiting was so violent and sudden that he couldn’t stop his eyes or his nose from running; his body was shaking hard and leeching of all warmth.

 

“Sir are you well?” Jarvis asked him.

 

“Is anyone awake Jarvis?” Harry forced out miserably before he brought up more bile and his stomach clenched hard.

 

“Master Tony and Master Bruce are awake and in the lower lab, would you like for me to inform them of your condition?”

 

“N…no. I don’t want to bother them if they’re working.”

 

Harry heaved and threw up again, his stomach and throat burning, the pain in his belly making him move one hand from the toilet seat to press against it hard even as he rested his head on his arm, resting across the toilet seat, getting in a few shallow breaths before he threw up once again, his eyes streaming and his stomach cramping.

 

“Master Steven is stirring if you would like me to inform him.”

 

Harry shook his head as he was unable to reply through another round of vomiting. He didn’t need to have said a thing though as it seemed Steve had woken up to use the toilet and found Harry regardless as he was halfway through an uncontrollable episode of repeated dry heaving that he couldn’t break and couldn’t stop.

 

“Harry? Jarvis get Bruce!” Steve ordered as he cradled Harry’s freezing body in his arms, rubbing circles on his back to help sooth him.

 

“No…no need.” Harry bit out, before he heaved again and a trickle of bile dribbled continuously from his throat, making it so he was unable to breathe, which caused him to panic and heave further, his body shivering uncontrollably, leaving him gasping for air.

 

Bruce and Tony both burst into the bathroom as Harry was panting heavily with Steve’s help, getting only a few moment’s reprieve before the vomiting started again, even as Harry sobbed and brought up nothing but bile and stomach acid.

 

“Morning sickness?” Bruce questioned as he placed a cool hand on Harry’s already cold forehead. “He’s in shock, probably from waking up suddenly and the force of the vomiting.”

 

“What do we do?” Steve asked desperately.

 

“Wait for him to finish and then get him warm and replace the fluids he’s lost. Water or actually a weak fruit juice might be best.”

 

“I’ll go get on that.” Tony offered. “I’m not any good with people being sick and whatnot.”

 

Tony made a hasty retreat and left Harry in the hands of Steve and Bruce, Harry wondered as his stomach tried to exit his body if he would have been better just staying on his own as the two flapped about him and didn’t seem to have any clue what to actually do while he vomited.

An hour later Harry had been cleaned up, had washed his mouth out and was wrapped in a warm, woollen blanket on Tony’s settee with a glass of lukewarm, watered down fruit juice shaking between his hands. He was taking small sips from it and nibbling on a few crackers Bruce had handed him. He felt better but completely drained and exhausted. If this is what morning sickness was, he had absolutely no idea what insanity possessed people to get pregnant for a second time.

Bruce came and sat by him, taking a hand gently and considering it between his own before two slender fingers pressed on his wrist, counting his pulse.

 

“You’re getting better, you’re warmer at least, but I would say you’re still a bit shocky, try and drink a bit more, the sugar will help you feel better.”

 

Harry did as he was told and took a few more shaky sips.

 

“Why would anyone put themselves through this?” Harry groaned miserably.

 

“Who knows.” Tony replied. “I always thought breeders were insane anyway.”

 

Harry managed a weak smile and allowed himself to rest his head on Bruce’s shoulder. He didn’t care that for the last few days he had been angry with the man, he had helped him when he had had no clue what to do, he had never been as violently sick as that and he was grateful for the help and now he just wanted to sleep.

 

“Get some more sleep Harry, we’ll watch over you.” Steve assured him.

 

“Get him a bucket, this carpet wasn’t cheap.”

 

“Have some consideration Tony!” Steve snapped, but Harry managed a small chuckle.

 

“I promise not to be sick on your carpet, just keep that woman away from me.” Harry said as he was eased down onto a cushion and covered more firmly with the blanket, Bruce taking his glass of juice and putting it behind his head on the end table.

 

“Is he really asleep that quickly?” Tony asked a few minutes later as he checked his watch and checked Harry. “That was barely five minutes.”

 

“His body is exhausted.” Bruce said softly as he tucked a stray tuft of hair behind Harry’s ear, only for it to pop right back out and to its original position. It made him chuckle. Even Harry’s hair was stubborn and disobedient.

 

“He’ll be okay though won’t he? Was it something he ate?” Steve asked worriedly.

 

Bruce shook his head. “He’ll be fine, but it’s morning sickness Steve, not anything he ate. It’s a common part of pregnancy.”

 

“Will he be like this every morning?” Tony asked.

 

Bruce shrugged. “We’ll have to wait and see. I’m not sure, but this bout was really violent and unexpected, hopefully now it’ll calm down and won’t be as violent, but we’ll have to wait and see and try to find something that can settle his stomach so he can eat and sleep properly.”

 

“It’s a shame really.” Tony said. “I was hoping he would make me more muffins for breakfast.”

 

“Tony!” Steve chastised.

 

Bruce just shook his head and rubbed soothing circles on Harry’s shoulder when the twenty year old shivered under the blanket.

 

“Jarvis, put the temperature of the house up please.” Tony requested, his eyes not missing the shiver.

 

“Done Sir, the heating temperature has been put up to fifteen degrees.”

 

“Do you think he got to sleep before he was sick? I couldn’t help noticing he was still wearing his jeans.” Steve said worriedly.

 

Bruce considered it but he shook his head. “I think he must have been so tired he fell asleep in his clothes, he must have kicked off his shoes, taken off his shirt to get changed, but never managed to fully change before falling asleep.”

 

“Jarvis has Harry been sleeping properly?” Tony questioned concernedly.

 

“Harry has been plagued with nightmares since his arrival Sir, he wakes up often throughout the night and sometimes he stays awake reading until it is morning upon which he moves himself and his books to the communal living room and reads there. He has slept for a full eight hours only twice and he averages four hours a night.”

 

Tony rubbed his eyes. “Should we get him on sleeping pills? Are there any sleeping pills safe for pregnant Omegas? Maybe I should make one.”

 

“You’re not using Harry and his baby as test subjects, he’ll be fine.” Bruce said sternly. “He needs to rest often, maybe take a couple of breaks in the afternoon, he needs to eat properly and he needs absolutely no stress.”

 

“So in other words we keep Clint and Natasha away from him.” Tony nodded.

 

“I have no idea what possessed her to follow Harry and interrogate him, but we had best be sure it doesn’t happen again.”

 

“It was obviously over Clint.” Tony rolled his eyes. “What else would it have been? His muffin choices? His reading material? He hasn’t done anything that warrants an interrogation if it wasn’t to do with Clint.”

 

“I think it might have been to do with Thor’s appearance at breakfast and Clint storming off.”

 

“That was hardly anything to ream out a pregnant Omega over, it was damned funny.” Tony waved off.

 

“I don’t think Clint saw the funny side.” Bruce said wryly.

 

“That’s his problem, I told him he needed to explain everything to Harry then back off and give him space and he hasn’t done so, what’s the point in giving him advice if he doesn’t take it?”

 

“He’s a very stubborn man unless the orders come from Coulson.” Steve pointed out.

 

“Hmm…maybe I should get Agent to talk with him.”

 

“What happened?” Clint asked panicked as he stepped off the lift and saw Harry sleeping on the settee with Bruce hovering over him.

 

“Morning sickness Clint, he’s fine.” Bruce assured.

 

“He doesn’t look fine.”

 

“He needs some rest and relaxation, Steve found him being violently sick two hours ago and he slipped into shock, but he’ll be fine.”

 

“The baby?”

 

“As right as rain.”

 

“How can you be sure?”

 

“It was morning sickness Clint, nothing too serious, as long as he isn’t as sick as he was this morning every single day; he’ll be fine and can stay out of hospital.”

 

“Yeah, he’s hardly dying, Cupid.” Tony shrugged.

 

“Don’t you have things to be doing in your workshop?” Clint demanded.

 

“I always have things to do in my workshop, fortunately though sick little Omegas come before that so I’m staying top side until Harry’s better.”

 

“I think starting breakfast will be a good idea, Clint it’s your turn, don’t make anything for Harry though, he won’t be able to stomach it, porridge or dry toast would be better if he feels up to it later.”

 

Clint nodded and unhappily moved to the kitchen with Steve following behind him and Bruce watched him go sadly. He hoped Harry would forgive him one day, even if he was never able to forget what Clint had done to him, he hated seeing people in pain and both Harry and Clint were hurting.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry was left alone to sleep for as long as he liked, even Steve not saying anything about the missed meals, especially not after Jarvis had informed them that Harry had not been sleeping properly.

Harry finally woke up sometime after two in the afternoon with a small whining noise in the back of his throat. His stomach heaved and Tony’s eyes widened.

He picked Harry up as quickly and as carefully as he could and nearly ran to his private bathroom, which was even bigger than the communal bathroom a floor down, and placed Harry in front of the toilet, his heart beating as he felt out of place, he did what he had seen Steve and Bruce doing before he had run away and patted Harry’s back awkwardly.

Harry heaved but nothing came up and he breathed rapidly and shallowly until his stomach was back under his control and his breathing was following.

 

“Are you alright?” Tony asked uncomfortably.

 

Harry hummed and pushed back from the toilet.

 

“No sick, are you sure?”

 

Harry cracked a smile and a small chuckle. “I think my stomach’s completely empty, there’s nothing left to come up after this morning.”

 

“Thank fuck for that!” Tony sighed in relief as he helped Harry stand and let him wash his hands and face regardless.

 

“Thank you, Tony.”

 

“That’s alright, I’d rather have my bathroom sterilised than my carpet ripped up and replaced.”

 

Harry grinned and allowed the man to half carry him back out to the living room.

 

“Your bed is fucking massive, that’s definitely orgy sized.” Harry teased as they moved past it.

 

“Room for me and several very gorgeous women, sometimes men, very rarely men.”

 

“You mean that many people want to be around you at the same time?” Harry teased.

 

“Of course, I’m Tony Stark.”

 

“What do they think when they wake up to find the rest of the Avengers in your kitchen?”

 

“Some scream and throw fits; others try to fit themselves in to stay. I had one who tried hitting on Steve; apparently she wanted the whole Avengers team under her belt.” Tony shrugged. “Either way Pepper deals with them, I’m usually down in my workshop when they crawl out of my bed.”

 

“I’m sure one day you’ll find the right person.”

 

“I’m not looking too hard.” Tony answered with a wink and Harry chuckled. “Now do you want to sleep some more or do you want to risk eating something with a bin shoved in your face?”

 

“I think some quiet time would be best, my stomach’s still restless.”

 

“I’ll go and get you some of your books.”

 

“I’m reading the one on the bedside table.” Harry told him as Tony settled him down under the blanket.

 

It took Tony just a few minutes to retrieve the thick book and get back to the living room to hand it over to Harry.

 

“Thanks Tony, you can go do what you want to now, I’ll be fine.”

 

“Are you sure? Your drink is by your side and Jarvis can call any of us at any time alright, I’ll be down in my workshop.”

 

“Okay, but I’m sure I’ll be okay, I don’t plan on going anywhere.”

 

Tony nodded and tucked Harry’s blanket over his bare shoulders, it was horrible to see the scars the little Omega had been left with, not that he cared, but he rather thought Harry might if he actually got around to realising he wasn’t wearing a shirt.

Harry allowed him to tuck him up, holding the blanket in place with his chin as he opened his book to where he had left off and Tony happily slipped down to his workshop, informing Bruce of what had happened once he arrived.

Harry was happily engrossed in his book, taking a sip of the weak juice that was beside him now and then, trying to figure out what flavour it was supposed to be, he thought it might have been summer berries, but it was nearly impossible to tell with it being so diluted.

He was left alone, no one coming onto Tony’s penthouse floor until Bruce wandered up at four in the afternoon, two or so hours after Tony had left.

 

“Hello Harry, how are you feeling?”

 

“Fine, I feel so much better.”

 

“That’s good, do you want to try eating something or do you want to leave it?”

 

Harry considered the question seriously. “I’m hungry and the juice hasn’t done anything to my belly, so I think trying to eat something would be best. I can’t go a whole day of only eating a few crackers.”

 

Bruce nodded at his answer and headed into the kitchen to start dinner, smiling as Harry wandered over to the kitchen table, putting his book down before washing his hands and looking at him for instruction.

 

“You know I don’t think making you work will help you feel better.” He said wryly.

 

“I disagree. I want to help.”

 

Bruce shook his head and started telling Harry what he wanted done, it took him less time than it usually did to make dinner with the competent helping hands, Harry really was good in the kitchen and when Bruce didn’t need any more help he moved to a spare counter and said he was making dessert. Tony would be ecstatic.

Bruce got Jarvis to call everyone to dinner just as Harry was putting his dessert into the oven; he said it was a chocolate brownie pudding. All Bruce knew was that it looked gorgeous and smelt better.

Harry was happily eating tiny amounts of food from his fork when everyone arrived; thankfully Thor was dressed as was everyone else, even if Natasha and Clint were in shorts and tee shirts.

 

“I thought we’d have time to shower, you said half five.” Clint said, still breathless from his sparring exercise.

 

“I had some expert help so I finished earlier than I expected.” Bruce said with a smile at Harry, who grinned before taking another small forkful of food.

 

“You shouldn’t be making him work, he’s unwell.” Steve hissed at Bruce.

 

“It’s fine, I wanted to help, I’m feeling much better now.”

 

“As long as you still feel better after you’ve eaten I have no problem.” Tony saluted him and Harry rolled his eyes as he chewed.

 

Dinner was mostly quiet as Harry was once again sat next to Thor, because Harry had moved as soon as Natasha had tried to sit next to him. Harry would have taken anyone else, even Clint sitting next to him, but not her and the only other seats available were between Thor and Bruce or Thor and Steve. Harry had happily taken the seat between Thor and Bruce, the furthest from Natasha.

Harry finished last, even though he had started first and he put his plate in the sink ready for Natasha to clean, taking his pudding from the oven happily, which drew Tony’s attention.

 

“Please tell me that’s for everyone and not just you.”

 

“I couldn’t eat all of this in a week.” Harry chuckled as he cut it into eight pieces and put them into dishes as Bruce took a pot of cream from the fridge.

 

“You’re the best.” Tony told him as he handed him his bowl and a spoon.

 

“You’re just saying that because you want more muffins.” Harry grinned.

 

“That is entirely true but I’ll settle for not having you being all morning sick on my carpets.”

 

“Morning sick.” Harry snorted with a laugh. “I’ll try, but I make no promises.”

 

“That’s fair enough I guess, maybe I should turf Pepper out of her room and swap you around so you’re closer to the bathroom.”

 

“Do that and I’m sure Pepper will get to you before I do, but in case she doesn’t, I’ll break both of your legs.”

 

“I love how you’re always threatening to break Alpha bones. It’s all sexy and cute at the same time.” Tony faux growled at him, bearing his teeth.

 

Harry burst out laughing and patted Tony’s cheek. “Underestimate me all you want, but I’ll still break your legs if you try to move Pepper from her room because I’m very sure she’ll go right for your throat if you suggest it.”

 

“Point taken.” Tony answered. “I’ll give you your own personal bucket instead.”

 

“That would be lovely.” Harry grinned, turning back to his pudding.

 

Natasha finished her pudding and then got started on washing the dishes, Clint moved to the settee and switched on the TV and Thor joined him. Bruce took Harry’s empty bowl so he didn’t have to go near Natasha and Harry surprised himself, but not as much as he surprised the others, by taking his book to sit next to Clint.

He sat curled away from him, his knees curled up, protecting his belly, but he still sat next to him and stayed there, breathing as evenly and gently as he could, testing himself more than anything. He could do this, he wasn’t a fool or an irrational person, he could sit next to Clint easily, it’s not like he truly remembered being mated, not really, he just knew that it had happened and he was now pregnant from it. He got a few flashbacks, a few memories of the event, but nothing in full, nothing that reminded him of pain or distrust.

Harry must have fallen asleep because the next he knew his back was cold and he arched to keep it from getting colder, reaching out with a groan to the warmth against his front, holding it tightly.

 

“Harry, you need to let go, you need to sleep.”

 

Harry blinked his eyes open and blond hair caught his eyes, he frowned immediately thinking of Steve, but the body under his hands was wrong.

His brain caught up and he saw Clint and recoiled from him. Clint moved away as if he had been burnt.

 

“What are you doing?” Harry asked trying to be angry, but he was just too tired and groggy.

 

“You fell asleep upstairs; I thought you’d be more comfortable in bed, so I carried you here.”

 

Harry calmed down and nodded. “Thank you Clint.” He forced himself to say.

 

Clint nodded and edged backwards to the door. “Goodnight Harry.”

 

Harry smiled and covered himself over.

 

“Don’t forget to change into your pyjamas; it can’t be comfortable sleeping in your jeans for yet another night.” Clint told him.

 

“Thank you, goodnight Clint.”

 

The door closed and Harry sighed in relief as he obsessively listened and heard footsteps down the hallway, he was being stupid, Clint hadn’t meant to hurt him, it had been out of his control, he wasn’t going to turn into a ravaging beast and mate him in a tower full of superheroes.

He slipped his jeans off and changed his boxer-briefs, pulling on sleeping shorts as well, before snuggling down in bed and falling off to sleep with difficulty, his mind playing over his evening with the Avengers and most particularly Clint, whom he had spent the evening sat beside and who had carried him easily to bed. It was too confusing and his emotions and thoughts were too confusing, he pushed them away and fell off to sleep, praying that the violent morning sickness did not come back the following morning, he had had enough of vomiting for the entire year.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Another one down, another one to come soon, Tuesday or Wednesday I’m thinking, but don’t hold me strictly to that, anything can happen between now and then after all, but that’s when I’m hoping to get it up and out.
> 
> Thank you to all of you who have read and reviewed, I welcome your questions, but please, do not tell me Harry is out of character because he is not a super powerful wizard who can perform the most impossible of spells with a flick of his wrist, because he can’t, not in this fic and certainly not in canon, some of you need to go back and read the books again because you have obviously read too many stories and have forgotten what canon is and are confusing it with fanon.
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	8. Craving

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: For Tracey, who needs a lot of cheering up, I hope this helps you in whatever small way lovelie. 
> 
> Last Time
> 
> The door closed and Harry sighed in relief as he obsessively listened and heard footsteps down the hallway, he was being stupid, Clint hadn’t meant to hurt him, it had been out of his control, he wasn’t going to turn into a raving beast and mate him in a tower full of superheroes.  
> He slipped his jeans off and changed his boxer-briefs, pulling on sleeping shorts as well, before snuggling down in bed and falling off to sleep with difficulty, his mind playing over his evening with the Avengers and most particularly Clint, whom he had spent the evening sat beside and who had carried him easily to bed. It was too confusing and his emotions and thoughts were too confusing, he pushed them away and fell off to sleep, praying that the violent morning sickness did not come back the following morning, he had had enough of vomiting for the entire year.

Chapter Eight – Craving

Another week passed easily and Harry was booked in for his first scan of the baby today at S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters, he had been told sternly by Agent Coulson that he was not allowed to seek or receive any medical attention by anyone outside of S.H.I.E.L.D unless it was an absolute emergency, so he had had to wait until S.H.I.E.L.D had a free slot to fit him in, it happened to be today.

Harry didn’t mind going to S.H.I.E.L.D for medical reasons, he did not want anyone to find out that he was pregnant with the baby of an Avenger; it was far too dangerous, for him and the baby. He just didn’t like that he had to go out today of all days, when his preheat was in full force.

He hadn’t been sick again since that first time, but only two days later he had slipped onto a preheat. It had terrified him when he had seen Clint’s eyes blow wide in lust, but the man had behaved amicably and closed his eyes to control himself, he had kept his distance as he escorted Harry to the kitchen, where Tony had dropped his toast and fled the kitchen as fast as he could. Harry tried not to let it hurt his feelings; he had been told numerous times that Tony had a ‘fear’ for lack of a better word, of anything Omega.

Watching the eyes of all of the people he had come to know over the last two weeks blow wide with lust made Harry so uncomfortable and shy, he just wanted to curl up in a hole until his preheat ended. He was almost thankful that he was pregnant and wouldn’t slip onto a full heat period, but if he wasn’t pregnant he’d be on his suppressants, which meant nearly the same, he’d have a preheat and no actual heat, but he wouldn’t have a baby he didn’t want either.

Steve bless him tried his best to ignore the situation, including him in a very strained conversation that took more will power and stubbornness than anything to keep going, but Harry ate his breakfast and then holed himself back up in his bedroom, adamant that he wouldn’t be coming back out again until his preheat ended, unfortunately Agent Coulson arrived two days later to drag him to S.H.I.E.L.D to get a scan of the baby to make sure everything was going fine and wouldn’t let him back out of the appointment due to pheromone issues.

The man hid his emotions and thoughts very well, it helped that his eyes were hidden behind mirrored sunglasses and his body showed no tension or strain, Harry could almost believe he was walking with another Omega, and that helped relax him immensely.

Of course he was heckled by young Alphas at S.H.I.E.L.D but a quick baring of teeth and a small growl from Coulson had them all ducking away and going back to their business, though Coulson wrapped an arm around his waist, hand over his flat belly to protect the baby, keeping Harry tucked into his side to protect him and Harry could almost believe he was bonded to Agent Coulson.

They made it happily to the infirmary and Agent Coulson helped him onto the high bed and stood beside him on guard to wait for the doctor.

 

“Are you staying here because the doctor is an Alpha?” Harry asked perceptively.

 

Agent Coulson nodded. “Yes, Doctor Bennet is a very professional man, but he is an Alpha and a happily unbonded one. I don’t want any trouble arising because he believes it to be a good idea to harass an Omega on a preheat in his care.”

 

Harry nodded and felt better that Agent Coulson was staying with him when the Doctor came in and struggled to hold his professionalism together.

He was an older gentleman with greyish, white hair, he was sure the term ‘silver fox’ would be thrown around by the overworked nurses, but Harry didn’t care as the man’s brown eyes were almost lost to his pupil.

 

“Agent Coulson, will you be staying?” The Doctor asked and there was a hint of something in his voice that made Harry reach out for Agent Coulson’s hand.

 

“I will, I’m sure you understand that Director Fury wishes for the very best care and security for Harry.” Phil said as he gripped Harry’s hand tightly. He couldn’t help but notice that Harry caressed something at his hip and wondered if he had brought his gun with him. He couldn’t blame the young man after what had happened, but he did wonder why the metal detectors hadn’t gone off when Harry had walked through them as he entered the building.

 

Only ten minutes in and Harry wanted the examination to be over as the doctor tried twice to go lower than was needed, each time stopped by a sharp word from Agent Coulson.

Harry stayed only long enough to confirm the baby was alright and developing normally, before he was off the bed and pulling his shirt back on, clear gel be damned. He’d shower later.

 

“Don’t you want pictures?” The doctor asked surprised.

 

“No. I want to leave now.”

 

Coulson was there then, leading him out with a calming hand, thanking the doctor, but making a veiled threat about coming back to talk to him at a later date.

Harry was led through the building and back through the metal detectors, thankful he hadn’t been asked for an on the spot search because he had his wand in his hip holster, as he waited on the other side for Coulson to take off his gun and step through, before reclaiming it on the other side.

 

“Are you hungry? We could go and get you something to eat outside of the tower to make you feel more comfortable.”

 

Harry nodded and allowed Coulson to take him to a small restaurant; Harry tried to ignore the turning heads, the cat calls and wolf whistles, the propositions and the downright lewd proclamations, but it was difficult and only years of being treated the same, like a walking sex toy, allowed him to walk normally, his back ramrod straight, defiance in every line of his pinched face as he sat down with a thunk and took in a deep breath, ignoring all the Alpha smells that rushed into his senses.

He couldn’t ignore the man that squeezed himself next to him though as he sniffed at his hair and Harry flinched away and glared at the Alpha.

 

“Can I help you with something?” He demanded sharply with a sneer.

 

“He’s too old for you baby, you need someone who can keep up with you, what do you say we leave him here and you come back to my place?”

 

Harry didn’t have time to get in a word as the Alpha was gone from his side and Coulson was just stood there, his face blank, his mirrored sunglasses still on his face.

 

“I suggest you leave him alone.”

 

“Why? What you gonna do old man?”

 

“Take this outside gentlemen!” The waitress told them sternly. “This is a family restaurant. There are Pregnant Omegas and children here today!”

 

“Just leave it Phil.” Harry said softly. “I’m used to Alpha dicks acting like this all the time.”

 

Phil didn’t move his face from the taller, thicker Alpha tensed in front of him.

 

“I will tase you if I have to.” Coulson threatened. “I will watch you dance uncontrollably on the floor for entertainment as Harry and I have a meal together and on the way out, I’ll call the Enforcers and see who they think is in the wrong.”

 

“You shouldn’t bring your little girlfriend out if he’s leaking pheromones all over the place, you should lock him up!”

 

Harry refused to react, he locked all of his joints so he wouldn’t just sink into the booth he was sat in so all the eyes he could feel looking at him would go away. He glared harder.

 

“There are no laws, official or otherwise, that states an Omega in preheat cannot go outside and do everything they would have normally. If you are not disciplined enough to control yourself around mere preheat pheromones, that is not the Omegas fault; it’s yours, now I suggest you kindly leave.”

 

The bigger Alpha went red at that as some people chuckled and tittered at the insinuation that he was a weak Alpha. He looked around in surprise as he realised he was losing the crowd that had been behind him to begin with.

 

“I want you out of my restaurant!” The waitress demanded.

 

Harry glanced a peek at her to see her looking at the troublesome Alpha and not at him and Phil and he smiled.

Coulson didn’t move, he didn’t even smile, smirk or frown, his face was still pleasantly blank and Harry gained a new found respect for the man and understood exactly why he was Fury’s closest, most senior Agent.

Phil moved for the first time and it was to take his mobile phone from his jacket pocket.

 

“I will call the Enforcers; I believe it’s a twenty-four hour stint with them for harassing an Omega in public and they won’t go easy on you.”

 

“He’s unbonded!” The Alpha tried desperately.

 

“Most Omegas these days are. It doesn’t mean they are free for you to heckle them. Now leave or I will make good on my promise to Taser you and call the Enforcers as we leave.”

 

The man wisely left and Harry smiled as the conversation burst around them excitedly as Phil sat back down and smiled for the first time since standing up.

 

“You’re a real badass you know.” Harry chuckled.

 

“So I’ve been told. Now, what would you like to eat?”

 

Harry enjoyed his time with Agent Coulson immensely and was in a much better mood when they got back to the tower. Harry was laughing hysterically and Phil was supporting him from the lift and into the living room.

 

“Is he okay?” Steve asked.

 

“He’s perfectly fine.” Coulson replied with a smile as he sat Harry next to the Captain. “He has really enjoyed the story I told him about when Stark and I first met.”

 

“Super…supernanny!” Harry giggled breathlessly.

 

“It’s a good programme to watch when you’re the babysitter of several disobedient Agents, isn’t that right Agent Barton?”

 

“Yes Sir.” Clint replied with a grin and Harry started laughing again.

 

“I’m the handler for the Avengers now and between Barton and Stark, I need all the help I can get.”

 

Harry’s laughing trailed off and he rolled over to Steve’s warmth and snuggled into his side with a smile.

 

“Did you get any of those grainy ultrasound photos?” Tony asked, looking like he was trying very hard to stay put, his hands gripping the arm of the settee he was squashed against. Steve must have said something to him.

 

“No. I wanted to leave that disgusting, touchy-feely doctor as soon as possible, how dare he try and cop a feel of me!”

 

“I’ll sort it out for you Harry and I’ll find a well-trained, professional Beta doctor for your next appointment.”

 

“I hate Alpha dicks.” Harry bit out furiously, sitting upright and away from Steve, even though he let that muscled arm remain around his back. “The doctor, that guy in the restaurant, the guy on the walk home, why can’t they all find some brain cells and realise they’re never going to find a bond mate when they act like that? That Omegas are all just a piece of ass for them to cop a feel off before swanning off to the next trampled Omega who’ll have them!”

 

Harry huffed bad temperedly and threw himself back against the settee, and Steve’s arm, and tried to relax, one hand moving to trace light patterns on his stomach.

 

“You’re not feeling sick again are you?” Bruce asked kindly, watching his finger trace absently.

 

Harry shook his head. “No. I feel fine and I’ve eaten already, so I think I’m going to shower or something and read more of that book on caesareans.”

 

“Take a bath; it’ll help you relax more.” Steve suggested. 

 

“Thanks Steve!” Harry said as he gave him a hug and stood up. He hugged Coulson happily. “Thank you for taking me to my appointment and for sticking up for me and for taking me to dinner, I had a great time.”

 

“It was my pleasure Harry.”

 

Harry ignored the look on Clint’s face, that betrayed, saddened look. He had no right to look like that, but maybe it was because Coulson was his Handler, both before the Avengers and after, but still, he didn’t want Clint looking hurt, it made him feel unduly guilty, it had only been dinner and not even a date dinner, but more of a ‘I’m hungry, let’s eat’ dinner.

He locked the bathroom door after collecting his pyjamas and started running the bath, he hoped the rest of his preheat week passed quickly and without issue. He couldn’t put up with these Alphas anymore and he wanted his normal Tony back, not Tony who leapt for the nearest exit every time he walked into a room. He missed his talks with Tony.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

The next week Harry was feeling better, his preheat had ended and everything was near enough back to normal. It was currently half five in the morning, breakfast time in Harry’s mind, and he was searching the kitchen for something he knew he wanted, but wasn’t sure what it was exactly that he wanted. He was going through every cupboard and draw to find the something he wanted.

He could feel someone behind him and jerked a look over his shoulder to look at Steve, who woke up at the same time every single day, his inner body clock telling him it was time to wake up.

 

“Morning Steve!” Harry called out to him before diving back into a cupboard.

 

“Good morning Harry, what are you doing?”

 

“Looking for something.” Harry replied easily.

 

“Oh, well what are you looking for, maybe I can help.”

 

“I don’t know what it is.”

 

Steve blinked in surprise before starting making breakfast for the team, who would be awake soon. He made sure to watch where Harry was so he didn’t step on him or kick him as he scooted around the lower cupboards for the thing he was looking for, but didn’t know what it was. Maybe he should call Bruce.

 

“What are you doing Harry?”

 

Steve sighed in relief as he heard Bruce’s voice and turned to see him and Tony looking at the young man digging in the cupboard.

 

“He’s looking for something.” Steve informed them.

 

“Just ask Jarvis, he’ll tell you where it is.” Tony chuckled.

 

“I don’t think he could.”

 

“Why not? Jarvis knows everything.” Tony defended hotly.

 

“Harry doesn’t know what he’s looking for; can Jarvis help Harry find something when he doesn’t know what it is he wants?” Steve asked.

 

“Ah, no.” Tony frowned. “Is it a food item?”

 

“Yes!” Harry called from the cupboard he was searching.

 

“I think he’s having his first food craving, his body must be deficient in something.” Bruce informed them.

 

“So this is normal for pregnancies?” Steve asked with a bit of relief as he pointed to Harry.

 

Bruce nodded before going to help Harry.

 

“What are they doing?” Natasha asked as she and Clint came up to the kitchen, looking as Bruce and Harry methodically went through every cupboard and draw.

 

“Searching for Harry’s deficiency.” Tony told them as he made himself a coffee.

 

“Harry has a deficiency?” Clint asked.

 

“Yes, only he doesn’t know what it is, so he’s searching for it.”

 

“What if you don’t have it here?”

 

“Please, between Pepper and Jarvis this house has something of everything.”

 

“Ah!” Harry exclaimed and drew everyone’s attention.

 

Bruce had pulled out a plate of small watermelon wedges covered in Clingfilm from the back of the fridge and Harry had almost snatched them happily from him.

 

“How can you be deficient in watermelon?” Clint asked.

 

“Don’t be stupid.” Tony told him. “He’s either deficient in vitamin A, vitamin C or potassium if he wants watermelon.”

 

“Could be B six.” Bruce added.

 

“There’s not a lot of B six in watermelon though, he could easily get more from eating a bowl of bran flakes.”

 

“Is it dangerous to him or the baby to be deficient in something?” Clint asked.

 

“It could be, but as Harry’s body seems to be able to identify what he’s deficient in and sets off cravings, they should both be fine.” Bruce answered.

 

As they waited for Steve to finish breakfast, they had nothing else to do but watch as Harry ate his watermelon, which should really be filmed and posted on a porn website as he near enough molested it with his mouth.

Steve had watched for two minutes before turning back to the oven with a flushed face as Harry nibbled, licked and sucked on the small wedges of watermelon, ignoring all of them, using the tip of his tongue to catch the trails of juice over his hands and fingers.

 

“This feels wrong and uncomfortable and I still can’t look away.” Tony said entranced.

 

Harry picked up another wedge of watermelon and started nibbling on it, but the trance ended when Thor joined them, being his usual loud and boisterous self as he clapped Harry so hard on the back he almost choked.

 

“Thor, be careful!” Steve chastised as he flapped around Harry.

 

“I’m fine.” Harry insisted as he patted Thor to ease the man, god, down from looking like a kicked puppy, going back to his watermelon with a bit more vigour than molestation so it didn’t look as sexual and more like normal eating.

 

“Do you want any Harry?” Steve asked as he plated up breakfast for the team.

 

Harry shook his head. “I’m fine thank you Steve.”

 

“What’s on the agenda today?” Bruce asked as he started eating.

 

“We have a team building exercise this afternoon.” Steve told them.

 

“Why do we need to do team building exercises?” Tony snorted. “We work fine together, as we’ve proven numerous times and yeah, sometimes one of us can be a complete asshole and get all moody or whatever, but we get over that. These exercises are a waste of time.”

 

“They’re not a waste of time, they’re mandatory.” Steve argued.

 

“Well I don’t like them and I don’t think we need them!” Tony argued back.

 

“We’re still going whether you like it or not.” Steve said firmly, ending the discussion and leaving Tony to silently fume.

 

“Will you be alright on your own for a few hours Harry?” Bruce asked.

 

Harry bobbed his head. “Perfectly fine. I’ll enjoy the rare and limited peace for as long as I have it. Besides, isn’t Pepper and Happy here?”

 

“Pepper will be off to work soon, Happy will drive her, but Jarvis is still here.” Tony told him.

 

“Complete and utter peace then.” Harry grinned.

 

“You’ll miss us soon enough.” Tony teased.

 

“I’m sure I can manage a few hours without missing you.”

 

“Sure sure, you know all the numbers for the emergency services yes? It’s nine-one-one in this country.”

 

“I’ve lived here for two years Tony; I think I have the emergency services number down.” Harry rolled his eyes.

 

“Just in case I’ll write it down and pin it to the fridge, you’ll be guaranteed to see it then.”

 

Harry had the almost uncontrollable urge to throw something at Tony, but he didn’t have anything to throw, so he settled on glaring at him poisonously.

 

“Lay off him Tony.” Steve cut in, laying a soft hand on Harry’s arm.

 

“It’s all in good fun Capt. Harry’s a good sport, he knows I’m just kidding, right Harry?”

 

“I will kill you while you sleep and stuff your mangled, mutilated body into a sewage pipe.” Harry hissed.

 

“On that note, I’ll just go and upgrade the security for my bedroom and then we can go to this team building thing.”

 

Harry smiled as Tony left the room and he went back to eating, the red rage fading as Tony left.

 

“Was that your first mood swing?”

 

Harry looked at Natasha through considering eyes. He still hadn’t forgiven her from the ambush at the shopping centre, but the anger he held was at the point where it took too much energy to maintain and he wasn’t bothered enough to carry on feeling that anger, he had more pressing things to worry about.

 

“I think so; the urge to kill him is gone at least.”

 

“Please say this isn’t going to be an everyday thing.”

 

Harry shrugged. “How the hell would I know? This is the first time I’ve been pregnant and my first baby. I’m not an expert, I don’t know what’s going to happen from here on in, all I know is from what I’ve read in books and I’ve never had much interaction with other Omegas, and next to no interaction with pregnant Omegas. I don’t know what to do or what to expect, so you lot are along for the ride too.”

 

“That’s alright Harry, I’m sure we can all manage together.” Steve soothed. “I’ve never been around pregnant Omegas or even Betas and the only babies I’ve held are the ones that were shoved at me during Captain America’s publicity shots.”

 

“That must have been annoying.”

 

“It was more frustrating than annoying, I didn’t mind, but having a baby near enough thrown at you means a lot of frantic scrabbling to stop the baby from falling.”

 

Harry shook his head. “I promise I’ll never throw my baby at you or Captain America. Some people can be so irresponsible.”

 

“I think it was excitement more than anything, every housewife in America loved Captain America.”

 

“It’s the biceps and six pack.” Harry nodded seriously.

 

Bruce chuckled while Steve went red.

 

“It’s a well-known fact that there are four things an Omega looks for in a bond mate.”

 

“Oh and what are those?” Clint asked, he almost managed to pull off casual, but Harry was a S.H.I.E.L.D agent too, they seemed to forget that.

 

“A solid six pack, big biceps, big thighs and a big something else.” Harry laughed.

 

“A big what something else?” Thor asked him, a frown between his eyes.

 

Harry grinned. “A big hammer, Thor.”

 

Thor’s face cleared and he nodded as if everything made sense to him. “I have all of those things you seek, though I left Mjolnir in my bed chambers.”

 

Harry blinked and then he started laughing and he couldn’t stop. He laughed so hard that he could feel tears falling down his cheeks and every gasped intake of breath hurt.

 

“You’re brilliant Thor, please, never change.”

 

“But these garments will be soiled by the end of the day.” Thor argued and Harry chuckled, his middle hurting too much to laugh again at the moment.

 

“I don’t think that’s what he meant Thor.” Steve explained as the god looked at a chuckling Harry with a confused frown.

 

“Then what did he mean?”

 

“You can change your clothes, but don’t change who you are.”

 

“I have been Thor for over two thousand years, why would I change now?”

 

“Again not really what he meant, but close enough.” Steve relented.

 

Harry shook his head and patted Thor’s shoulder, patting Steve’s as he went past to put his watermelon rinds in the food recycling and his plate in the sink.

 

“I’m going to go and pretend to watch TV while really thinking up ways to get past Tony’s new security.” He told the table as he carefully went down the three steps from the kitchen to the living area and sunk onto Tony’s plush settee. He didn’t actually do either as he spied his pregnancy book on the table and picked it up.

 

He said goodbye to the Avengers as they went off to do their team building course and he was left alone in a huge Tower that had more floors than anyone knew what to do with, though Tony was making noises about each Avenger having their own floor instead of all having bedrooms on the same floor. It was going to cost a lot to make every floor into a flat for each person. Tony had more money than sense in Harry’s opinion.

 

“Jarvis, am I allowed to leave or am I on lockdown?”

 

“I have not been instructed to lock you in the tower, but I must advise you against leaving Master Harry.”

 

“No Master, Jarvis.” Harry reminded the A.I. who he was sure was very uncomfortable not calling him Master, but Harry hated it. “I’ll be back before the Avengers know I’m even gone.”

 

“If Master Tony asks, I will have to answer him.”

 

Harry smiled. “I know Jarvis, but being in this Tower all day every day is not only boring, but I…I miss home. I miss my house, with my things, my space. I’m not sure if you understand, but I just want to go home for an hour or so.”

 

“You are suffering from homesickness.” Jarvis informed.

 

Harry nodded. “I guess I am. Before all this, I was very independent, I’m not used to having people help me or always being there to support me and it’s getting overwhelming lately. I know they’re worried and whatnot and sometimes I do like the attention and the support, which is strange as I used to hate it when I was younger, but it’s all getting too much. It must be because of the kidnapping and what happened afterwards, but I’ve been feeling clingy lately, not much like myself, I’m hoping that going home for a bit will ground me and make me, me again. Though it’s probably futile because the pregnancy and the hormones won’t help my independence much either, but I need to try, I don’t want to be seen as just another run of the mill pregnant Omega. I’m not like them; I’ve never been like them.”

 

Everything was silent as Harry breathed in deeply and slowly to calm himself after his little rant.

 

“You must do what you feel you must.” Jarvis told him and Harry smiled.

 

“Thank you Jarvis, I shouldn’t be too long, I don’t want to worry any of them after all. I’ll see you in a little while.”

 

Harry patted his thigh to make sure he still had his wand on him, though he already knew he had, and he rode the lift down to the ground floor, he was going to be extra aware of himself this time as he walked home and he wasn’t going to stay longer than an hour or two, but he just needed to ground himself, he was sure he would feel better afterwards and he would stop with the emotional hills, outbursts and mood swings. He was just glad he hadn’t burst into irrational tears yet; he didn’t think he’d live through the humiliation and the teasing that would then ensue after such an episode.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I can’t remember how long it’s been since I updated, which probably means it’s either been too long or I have memory problems, but I’ve been swamped lately with real life, personal business and an overhaul of plots that have left me drowning in word documents.  
> Bruce/Harry is up next and it’ll be another ficlet like this one, which hopefully equates to it being under twenty chapters, but with how strong it’s going, it’s anyone’s guess.  
> The second chapter to the Nick Fury/Harry fic will be up shortly too, I can’t believe I forgot about it, but there you go, all in a day’s suffering of being an author with a very busy real life.
> 
> As to the squash issue from the previous chapter, I had no idea it wasn’t a regular drink in America and that it wasn’t widely available like it is here, but I’ve been told that it is available, it’s just very expensive, but as he’s Tony Stark and has money to burn, we’ll just say he likes the extravagance of it to go with his alcohol collection, because some squashes are mixed with alcohol just like coke or lemonade is.
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	9. Recalibration and Round Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last Time
> 
> Harry patted his thigh to make sure he still had his wand on him, though he already knew he had, and he rode the lift down to the ground floor, he was going to be extra aware of himself this time as he walked home and he wasn’t going to stay longer than an hour or two, but he just needed to ground himself, he was sure he would feel better afterwards and he would stop with the emotional hills, outbursts and mood swings. He was just glad he hadn’t burst into irrational tears yet; he didn’t think he’d live through the humiliation and the teasing that would then ensue after such

Chapter Nine – Recalibration and Round Two

 

Harry made it home with absolutely no problems and he let himself in through the front door and inhaled the scent that he associated with his house. He didn’t spend endless amounts of time here, not between working so late and staying the night over at his office, but he knew enough, felt enough, to see this place as his and that comforted him.

He walked around and checked on everything and he immediately felt at ease. This place had been a safe haven away from everything, the troubles at work, Alpha dicks, whenever he felt lonely all he had to do was look around him and the pictures of his loved ones, spaced all throughout the house, were there to greet him and comfort him when he needed it.

He felt calmer as he walked through his house, boiling the kettle to make a hot chocolate, putting his favoured cocoa powder into his favourite mug. It all centred him and he just felt so much better about everything as he took his hot chocolate to his living room and sat on his favourite rug which was so thick it cushioned him.

He folded his legs together and breathed in the scent of his house and his hot chocolate and slipped his wand from its holster, he had been so careful at Tony’s tower, which was so full of technology that Harry thought that his very presence would blow up the entire structure. Jarvis was wired into every inch of the Tower, everything was automatic and filled with technology, he couldn’t use magic in a single room of Tony’s Tower without fear of frying the circuit board of something and it was too risky to try it, if they found out he was magical…he didn’t want to think on what it would do to the Statute of Secrecy or his relationship with the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D if he did.

He only did simple spells, summoning some biscuits he knew he had, summoning a book from his bookshelf and performing a strong cleaning spell to get rid of the accumulated dust and slightly off, stale smell, more for something to do than for any fear of inhaling any of the stale air or dust.

He felt better, more himself as he did and less like a pregnancy sideshow for people to watch. He liked the Avengers, but being constantly watched grated on his frayed nerves, it reminded him of being recorded and watched as he was strung up, naked and in agony by enemies.

He breathed in deeply again and settled himself. It was over, just like the war was over. There was nothing he could do, nothing that could change it now, so he had to learn from it and move on, or he was never going to be able to live a normal life. Or as normal as he ever got at any rate.

The truth of the matter was he just didn’t know what to do. It had been sudden, he had been almost at the bottom of the S.H.I.E.L.D hierarchy, doing paperwork and reports, though he knew he wasn’t supposed to be doing those, especially not the ones he had been given at any rate, but then he had been kidnapped out of the blue and tortured for information he wasn’t supposed to have. He knew that was still being investigated, but it wasn’t moving quickly enough and they couldn’t find who was behind it or who had told whoever had kidnapped him that he had had the information in the first place. The trail was going cold quickly and they weren’t getting any answers before they lost all hope of finding any information out.

Then he had been rescued by the world renowned Avengers team and they were all suddenly in his face and in his life, he had woken up and they were just there and they weren’t leaving. He didn’t know what to think about that particular mess.

It was getting easier to be around Clint, he was slowly realising that there had been no way to escape what had happened and it had been Harry’s choice to keep the baby, not Clint’s, but Natasha’s attitude towards him was clouding his judgement. Clint had had nothing to do with her ambush on him, he hadn’t known she had left the Tower and yes, he understood that she was Clint’s best friend, if she even believed in friends, and they had been through a lot together and that she wanted to protect him, but reaming him out like she had, cornering him when he couldn’t get away, he had lashed out and at the wrong person.

Harry sighed and sipped his hot chocolate, putting the book he hadn’t yet opened on the rug. He wanted someone to tell him what to do in regards to Clint, but he knew, as an adult he had to make that call himself, that’s what it meant to be an adult, you had to make all of the hard decisions yourself. Did he forgive the man who had sex with him without his consent, while he was strung up and unable to move or did he forgive the man who saved him from further torment and likely death, the man who was the Father of his baby whether he liked it or not. It was all so confusing and messed up and it gave him a huge headache. He took another sip of hot chocolate.

He pressed his hand to his belly and considered it, it seemed firmer than usual, bigger, but he didn’t know if that was the food and multi-vitamins he was taking to combat the starvation or if it was the baby. His pregnancy was progressing normally, so it could have been the baby, but he had been eating a lot lately, which is why Tony’s comment about pinning the emergency number to the fridge had hit his pride. He couldn’t help that he was getting hungry every few hours and now he was craving food, it was likely to only get worse from here on in.

Harry groaned and rubbed his face. His body had changed dramatically due to the torture, he had a multitude of scars, which were thankfully fading with the weakened salve he had from St Fiacre’s, he could count his ribs and feel his spine, his muscle had melted away to feed his starved body energy to keep him alive and he knew he looked bad, but he was getting better, he had more weight to him now, he looked healthier than he had before he was kidnapped, which could only be a good thing, but now his body was going to change dramatically again, this baby was going to grow, was going to balloon him outwards and if it was too fast for his recovering body to keep up, he was going to end up looking ridiculous with his skinny, underfed body and giant belly.

Taking several gulps of his cooling chocolate, Harry wondered again on what the best course of action was to do. Perhaps if he talked to Clint alone he would feel better, or would know better what he wanted to do. Their last private chat had reassured him a bit as to Clint’s reasoning, even if he hadn’t liked it, he understood. So perhaps another talk was on the cards.

He had no idea what to do about Natasha. Maybe if he sicced Pepper on her she’d back off and leave him alone. Even if he wouldn’t do it, the thought made him smile as he imagined Pepper beating the shit out of Natasha with a thick portfolio. But then he wondered if talking to Clint about it would be better, he was her best friend after all, maybe he could talk some sense into her or at the very least find out why she thought it was a good idea to corner him, trap him after his ordeal and ream him out like she had.

The others he had no problem with, though Steve could be overbearing at times, like a worried, overprotective mother hen, but as he did it to everyone, Harry tried not to fault him for it. He had had a team thrust on him in a time of crisis and he had dealt as best as he could, but active missions meant danger and injury and it was just the man he was that he didn’t want to see any of his ‘men’ hurt, so when one of them was hurt, he flew overboard, which wasn’t always a bad thing, unless you were the one that was hurt, then it was a very bad thing.  

Harry smiled. There wasn’t a bad bone in Steve’s body, even though he could be as badass as the rest of them when he felt his friends, loved ones or country were threatened, which made him the perfect Captain.

Tony cared in his own way, though his way of taking care of everything wasn’t a sympathetic ear like Steve, but he lavished everyone with money and expense and technology. It screamed of insecurity to Harry, but he wasn’t going to point it out, Tony was doing fine, especially with the arc reactor in his chest, most people would have just keeled over and let death take them, but Tony was one of a kind and he wouldn’t accept anything lightly, so of course he had found a way to combat what was happening to him, even if he had to build it himself.

Bruce was just Bruce, Harry hadn’t met the Hulk yet, but Bruce was such a kind and patient man, helping him and willing to listen and Harry could see the doctor in the man that had helped people out in isolated villages for pennies.

Harry chuckled as he thought of Thor. The god was hilarious without even knowing it and easily kept him entertained, whether he was misunderstanding something someone had said, or learning how to play videogames with Clint and Tony. Needless to say that the Wii Kinect was the best console for Thor, who liked doing the actions himself and not pushing a button to do the same action. Tony was mumbling about making a new console to incorporate the best of all of them for Thor to play with, Harry wondered sometimes how Tony had time for all the parties and galas he was invited to with all the things he had planned to do.

Harry put his empty mug down and picked up his wand again, doing simple children’s tricks just to feel the rush of magic through his body; the familiar warmth was comforting like nothing else ever had been, though his five broken toy soldiers had come close. Dudley had fallen over and sat on his whole army, buckling them and flattening some, he had managed to save five from the bin. Nolan, Jolen, Bowen, Rowan and Conan.

He had named them in his childish mind, thinking that a name made them more real, so that when he had talked to them, it made him feel better. He knew now it had been a coping mechanism for his lonely, isolated childhood.

He lost track of time and before he knew it he had been gone for three hours, just sat on his rug thinking and planning and wondering and scheduling all the while playing with his magic.

He stood up and put his mug in the sink, he stretched wondering if he should start making his way back before the Avengers got the entire of S.H.I.E.L.D out looking for him, but the hairs on the back of his neck suddenly prickled and stood up on end and Harry looked quickly to the side, through his kitchen window to see a man looking at him through the barrel of a gun.

Harry ducked automatically as the glass in the window shattered above him and he couldn’t help but think this was round two for his kidnappers, who apparently now wanted him dead and not alive so they could torture information out of him because that shot would have definitely been a killing blow, it had been a head shot.

Harry moved away from the kitchen window quickly and snatched his wand from his thigh holster, he made sure all the doors and windows were locked so his attacker couldn’t get into the house easily and he went up to the second floor, where he made an alarming, heart stopping discovery in the form of a hell of a lot of C4 packed up and wired up in his bedroom and spare room.

He had been in a house filled with C4 for over three hours and he hadn’t noticed. He hadn’t checked because this was his house, he hadn’t expected anything like this in his house, he would have swept an unknown address automatically, but this went beyond, those people must have been watching his house, just waiting for him to come back so they could blow him to kingdom come and that man outside was probably a watcher and he knew he was in here, he was likely going to detonate the bomb, he had to leave now.

Harry gripped his wand tightly and turned on the spot. The crack of Apparation and the familiar constricting sensation and then he was on the cold pavement sucking in deep breaths and trying not to vomit. He hadn’t gone far, just behind the next house as he had no idea what the effects of Apparation had on pregnancy or unborn babies, he hadn’t read that far yet, didn’t think he had needed too and now it was too late if it was dangerous to his baby, because it was either Apparate or blow up as he heard the almighty explosion that left his ears ringing and almost deafened him. He was thrown backwards onto his back from the force of the explosion and felt some stinging pain which probably meant some white hot debris had caught him.

The tears came before he could stop them. Almost everything he owned was in that house. Most of the pictures of his friends and parents, Sirius and Remus, his documents and paperwork that allowed him into this country, his passport, his house. All gone.

He heard the sirens and knew it would be safe to come out, the perpetrator would be long gone if the emergency services had arrived.

Harry stashed his wand into his holster, ignoring the blood on his hand and the sting that accompanied the movement.

He took a shuddering breath as he sat up and looked at where his house had used to be. There must have been another bomb in the basement, because the entire house, right down to the foundations was just gone, leaving a huge crater in the middle of the street.

He sat there and cried until suddenly there was a man touching him, Harry jerked and was shushed by the bonded Alpha, who checked him over, cataloguing injuries, apparently he didn’t have anything major injured because he was being shushed gently and then carried to a nearby ambulance in strong, capable arms.

He was being cleaned and patched up when S.H.I.E.L.D arrived, the Avengers in tow as they looked to where his house would have been. He wondered if Jarvis had told them that he had gone home, though judging from their devastated faces, the A.I. had informed them.

Tony took out his Starkphone and suddenly Harry heard the faint ringtone for his phone coming from the smouldering, burning wreckage that firefighters were battling to put out. Harry could have giggled insanely at the irony. His house and everything inside it was obliterated, but the Starkphone that had been in his satchel had survived the blast. He started crying again.

 

“Hey, come on, you’re alright, you’re fine. You’re not too badly hurt, you had a lucky escape, just a few scratches and burns.” The medic told him softly, smiling boyishly.

 

“That was my house.” Harry sniffed.

 

All at once the medic stiffened and called over his partner, having a whispered conversation with her, before he came back to Harry and smoothed his hair from his face.

 

“The police will need to speak to you, but you’re going to be just fine.”

 

The medic left him to see if there were any more injured people and Harry wanted a familiar face, he got up on wobbly legs, trying to brush some of the black soot and dirt from him as he weaved his way, almost drunkenly, to the Avengers.

They were demanding answers that the police didn’t have, ranting and raving, though Tony’s voice could be heard the most, Steve’s was a close second. It was actually Clint who turned and saw him first and he didn’t make any sound or gasp as Harry blinked and was then suddenly in the man’s arms being squeezed tightly, he didn’t make a murmur about the pain on his fresh cuts, grazes and burns. He didn’t say anything as he wound his arms around Clint’s neck and held on.

 

“You move fast.” Harry garbled out stupidly when he could unstick his tongue from the roof of his mouth.

 

Clint said nothing as he held Harry tighter.

 

“I’m okay. The medic said I was okay, just cuts and burns from being too close to the explosion.”

 

“Never do this again.” Clint’s voice was strangled and harsh, he sounded close to tears himself and two fresh tears joined the tracks already on Harry’s cheeks and down his neck, cutting a pathway through the soot, blood and dirt.

 

“I do try not to get blown up every day. This was a one off.” Harry sniffed as he wrapped his aching arms around Clint more firmly and held on tighter.

 

Clint moved Harry’s body to sit his legs more comfortably around his waist and moved him onto just his one arm as the other came around to cup his face gently, his thumb rubbing away the tear tracks on the one half of his face. The look on his face hurt Harry’s heart and he couldn’t believe he had ever thought ill of this man before him. Almost getting blown up really did put things into perspective.

 

“I’m sorry.” Harry said seriously, even as another wave of tears started, it seemed his hormones wouldn’t let something like this slide and he was having his tearful breakdown after all.

 

“Don’t be, just…just don’t do it again.” Clint murmured as he tucked Harry’s head under his chin.

 

“Clint, what are you doing?” Steve’s voice cut through their moment and Harry popped his head over Clint’s big, broad shoulder.

 

“Hi Steve.” He said softly, looking at the Captain and the rest of the Avengers, Phil was there and Fury too.

 

“Agent Potter, it seems you had a close call.” Fury said as he walked closer, looking at him through his one good eye.

 

“Very close. Too close.”

 

“What happened?”

 

“I was just about to leave and go back to the Tower, the hair on my neck prickled and I turned to see a man aiming a gun at me. I ducked on automatic and I don’t know what made me do it Sir, but I went upstairs, I remembered I put my phone in my satchel, which was in the living room, but I went to the house phone upstairs. The entire upper level was C4 wired together in blocks. I was in a house filled with C4 for three hours and I didn’t notice.”

 

“How did you get out?”

 

“I knew the man outside would detonate, I jumped the entire staircase and almost ripped the front door off its hinges to get out. I made it to the neighbour’s garden when the house blew.”

 

“Are you injured?”

 

Harry shook his head. “The medic said I had a lucky escape, just scrapes and a few burns. Probably, mostly shock.” He added as he realised he was shaking. “Not sure about the baby, that jump down the stairs couldn’t have done any good.”

 

“We’ll get you and the baby checked out as soon as we get you back to S.H.I.E.L.D, now do you remember anything about the man that shot at you?”

 

“He wasn’t dressed like an assassin. He was dressed to blend in, he was wearing a pale green shirt and greyish jeans; he had pale, very short, reddish blond hair, blue eyes and an ugly mouth. I could probably draw him if you’d like.”

 

Fury gave him a short nod.

 

“You remember all that from a quick glimpse?”

 

Harry nodded. “I’m not likely to forget the face of the man who shot at me and almost blew me to pieces. I’m good, but under pressure I’m better.”

 

“Why were you even here?”

 

“I wanted some of my stuff. I run out of clean clothes and I wanted my favourite blanket and the picture of…” Harry stopped as he realised that picture was gone. Demolished like everything else. Another wave of misery hit him with fresh tears. “It doesn’t matter now, it’s all gone. Nearly everything I own was in that house and now I have nothing.”

 

“It’s just materialistic things.” Natasha told him, trying to do it softly and comfortingly, but it hit Harry like a brick.

 

“My parents are dead, my family and friends are all dead, the only things I have to remember them by were in that house, all the photos, my parents wedding rings, most of my photo albums, my Mother’s journal, my Godfather’s motorbike and leather jacket, it might be silly, materialistic things to you but to me they were sentimental, I can’t even replace them because they just won’t mean the same!”

 

Clint squeezed him tightly and pressed his cheek against the side of his face as Harry tried to control the urge to bawl his eyes out as the realisation hit him that he had lost almost everything that meant something to him.  
He’d never get back the same rings his parents had worn on their fingers, the motorbike that Sirius had ridden and the jacket he had worn, the books that Hermione had thumbed through, they had touched those things, had loved them and now he had lost that connection to them through those things.

 

“I don’t want to be awake.” He said softly.

 

“What was that?” Steve asked him, stepping closer.

 

Before Harry could say anything, the medic was back, looking frantic.

 

“There you are, you shouldn’t be walking in your state, you’ve had a huge shock.”

 

“I don’t want to be awake.” Harry told the medic.

 

“You want me to put you to sleep?”

 

Harry nodded.

 

“It’s too dangerous with the shock you’re in.”

 

“Isn’t there anything weaker?” Clint asked sharply.

 

“Nothing I would feel safe using on him in his state.”

 

“I can’t be awake; I can’t take this on top of everything else. I can’t deal with it right now.”

 

“You’re a S.H.I.E.L.D agent, deal with it.” Was Fury’s advice and Harry did as the Director ordered and sucked in a breath and tried to detach his mind from what had happened. Like he had done when he was being tortured, but then he had started seeing people who weren’t there, talking to hallucinations and hearing them speak back, so maybe it wasn’t the best idea, but he was completely wrung out, he just wanted to sleep, was that so bad?

 

Clint wouldn’t let go of him and when the police had tried to speak to him, Tony had almost bitten their heads off with his usual dry witted, sarcastic manner.

Coulson intervened and updated the police on what Harry had told them, they didn’t like not speaking to Harry personally, but under the might that was Phil Coulson, they let it stand and took Phil’s story as Harry’s own, but of course he had lied to the Avengers, Coulson and Fury, so the police had a false report anyway, he wasn’t about to tell anyone that he had vanished from the upstairs landing and a second later he appeared in the neighbour’s garden just as the house blew up. He wasn’t that stupid, no matter what state he was in. If he hadn’t Apparated, then he wouldn’t have made it halfway down the stairs before being caught in the explosion.

He was taken to S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters first and he was checked out by the same doctor that had performed his first scan, but when he had tried doing anything inappropriate Steve had almost broken his wrist in anger, it would at the least be very badly bruised and as an older man, it wouldn’t heal quickly. Harry was almost perversely pleased about that.

The baby was fine and Harry breathed easier that he hadn’t killed or harmed the baby in any way that he could see or the scan could pick up on. He’d check his books from St Fiacre’s when he got back to the Tower to make sure no repercussions showed up in the pregnancy or with the baby due to his quick Apparation.

Clint still refused to let him go, which Harry didn’t mind as he was very tired and drained at the moment, he would have taken anyone carrying him at the moment, but he’d much prefer to just be put down and allowed to sleep where he lay even if it was in a gutter.

They made it back to the Tower and Harry was settled on the settee, a blanket thrown over him and tucked in as he sunk bonelessly into it, ignoring the hands touching his face, from the callouses on every single finger it could only be Clint. Tony didn’t have a callous on either of his fourth or fifth fingers and he was the only one who had near enough the same sized hands as Clint, Steve and Thor’s were much bigger and Bruce’s were smaller.

 

“Let me sleep Clint.” Harry murmured softly, lifting his arm half-heartedly to brush him away.

 

“Sorry.” The man sighed and sat back away from him.

 

“‘S okay, just want to sleep.”

 

“Sleep then, you need some rest.”

 

Harry couldn’t reply, he couldn’t do anything other than lie there as he drifted to sleep, his mind and emotions going into overdrive and knocking him out. He stayed there sleeping for several hours.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So it is international happiness day, so I’m trying to make my readers happy with another update and maybe an update for Rise of the Drackens on the way too. Make me happy in return with reviews, or write me a Harry Potter/Avengers one-shot. One of the two, or you know, both because I’m updating twice ;)
> 
> There were no questions I don’t think, not that I’ve seen anyway, but maybe that’s because the chapter’s only been up for twenty-four hours, but I’m not complaining at all, I hope you’ve all enjoyed this.
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	10. Overcoming Irrationality

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last Time 
> 
> “Let me sleep Clint.” Harry murmured softly, lifting his arm half-heartedly to brush him away.
> 
> “Sorry.” The man sighed and sat back away from him.
> 
> “‘S okay, just want to sleep.”
> 
> “Sleep then, you need some rest.”
> 
> Harry couldn’t reply, he couldn’t do anything other than lie there as he drifted to sleep, his mind and emotions going into overdrive and knocking him out. He stayed there sleeping for several hours.

Chapter Ten – Overcoming Irrationality

 

When Harry woke up he felt empty and listless. It looked to be afternoon of the next day if the sun through the windows was any indication.

 

“Jarvis, where is everyone?” He asked softly.

 

“I was told to inform them as soon as you woke, they will be with you momentarily.”

 

Harry groaned. He didn’t want to be fussed. He went to the kitchen and made himself a cup of coffee. The smell usually made him feel sick, but he wanted coffee this morning, just to settle himself. It was familiar and comforting and just what he needed right now.

He was right, the smell of the coffee did make him feel nauseous, but he was able to drink it down without it coming back up, which was a plus.

 

“Caffeine is bad for the baby.” Bruce informed him.

 

“I know, but I want one cup of coffee, it won’t kill either of us.”

 

“Please tell me you’re not going to get reckless now.” Tony said.

 

“Like you, you mean?” Harry chuckled. “No, I hardly think having one cup of coffee means I’m being reckless or flying off the handle. I’m used to almost dying now. I need something to settle myself and in the past it was always coffee, so I’m hoping one cup will help keep me grounded and settle me down a bit.”

 

“There are plenty of other drinks here, there’s herbal tea and hot chocolate.”

 

Harry stiffened. “I was drinking hot chocolate before the explosion.” He replied as calmly and casually as he could. “But lay off, I’m fine.”

 

“Do you want anything to eat?” Steve’s large hands wrung together and Harry tried not to show any tension, he knew Steve wanted to be fluttering around him, settling him back on the settee, feeding him and making sure everything was alright and that he was fine and resting, but that wasn’t what Harry needed right now, which was likely why he was restraining himself. Steve was very perceptive of other people’s needs.

 

“I’m fine, I’ve only just woken up, I don’t want to eat just yet. But seriously, I’m fine; I’ll get over this and get through this. I always do.”

 

“You mean you’ll block it out, stamp it down and bottle everything up.” Bruce gave him a look.

 

Harry groaned. “So what if I do? It’s worked well enough in the past.”

 

“The little outburst about your family.” Bruce was speaking softly and carefully, so as not to upset him. Harry would have been angry, except it was working.

 

“A minor crack, I don’t usually show that much raw emotion without filtering it.”

 

“You feel like you need to filter your emotions, why?”

 

“Oh stop with the twenty questions Bruce, I don’t need a psychiatrist.”

 

“Lucky for you then I’m a scientist, not a psychiatrist. These bottled up emotions are not good for you Harry, if you’ve had them for a long time then I’m surprised you passed your psyche evaluation to get into S.H.I.E.L.D.”

 

Harry licked his lips; he may have used a memory altering charm to make the psychiatrist believe he’d done his evaluation when in fact he had barely stepped inside the door.

 

“You lied in your evaluation, didn’t you?”

 

“Well, not exactly, I more, omitted the truth?”

 

“And the psychiatrist didn’t see through it?” Clint asked with a frown. “Every time I try and leave things out she pounces on me like an old dog with a bone.”

 

Harry sighed. “There’s not a lot of information on me, my age counts for me in that and the move over from Britain helped as all my files are still secured overseas, I had new medical folders and everything when I came over so everything was fresh and new when S.H.I.E.L.D took me on, they had no reason to suspect anything untoward had ever happened to me in my life and I liked it that way.”

 

“Your file labels your parents as deceased, as of nineteen-ninety-one. You would have been what? A year old.”

 

“A year and three months.” Harry corrected detachedly.

 

“That’s hard on anyone.”

 

Harry shrugged. “Easier than some, I never knew them so I had no time to actually miss them or for their death to emotionally hurt me, I was too young to understand.”

 

“But you felt the pain of their loss.”

 

“Of course. All throughout my childhood, I wished for them to come back every day, that childish thought that if you wish hard enough it’ll happen.”

 

“Were you happy during your childhood?”

 

“I thought you said you weren’t a psychiatrist?” Harry demanded.

 

“I’m not, but that was a very violent way to avoid the question, were you happy as a child?”

 

Harry breathed out harshly and dragged a hand through his hair. “No. My entire life has been miserable from as far back as I can remember.”

 

“Your folder says you went to live with your Mother’s sister and her husband and son. An address wasn’t given.”

 

“I don’t know where they live now, when I was seventeen they moved and never told me where they were going so I couldn’t put an address for S.H.I.E.L.Ds files.”

 

“That must have added to the hurt.”

 

“Not really, I was glad to see the back of them and that house.”

 

“Come and sit down Harry, just come and talk to us.”

 

“Why? Why do I have to talk about this now, why are you dragging it all up?”

 

“Because we didn’t know it was there inside you before and now that we do, it has to come up. You’re having a baby Harry and these emotions and bad feelings aren’t good for the baby, it’ll be good to get it all out.”

 

“I feel like it’s the only thing holding me together at the moment, if I get rid of it, I’m going to collapse in on myself.”

 

“You won’t.” Steve assured him with a hand to his shoulder. “We’ll be here to help you.”

 

Harry was steered to the kitchen table and sat down gently; he was given a glass of juice and was surrounded by people. Clint and Steve on one side, Bruce directly opposite, Thor and Natasha were on the end and had probably been told not to open their mouths as they were being very quiet and Tony was sat next to Bruce, opposite Steve, who it seemed kicked him every time he opened his mouth to say something.

 

“I know this is going to be hard Harry, just answer as truthfully as you can. Were you ever abused at home?”

 

Harry shrugged. “Depends on your definition of abuse.”

 

“What’s your definition of abuse?” Bruce asked back. “Is there anything they did to you something that you’d do to your own baby?”

 

Harry’s hand jumped to his stomach and he glared at Bruce. “No, never!”

 

“So what did they do that you wouldn’t do to your baby?”

 

Harry sighed and rested his forehead against the table. “Can we not do this Bruce? I feel bad enough as it is without dragging this up as well. I could have lost my life yesterday, my baby’s life!”

 

“It seems you’re quite good at doing that, that’s twice since we’ve known you, how many times; do you know about, that you have almost lost your life?”

 

Harry groaned and counted them. The bomb, the gun aimed at his head, the kidnapping, several times during the war, including actually dying, no matter how fleetingly, twice during the hunt for the Horcruxes, almost being killed by the Inferi, the duel and possession at the Ministry of Magic, four times during the Tri-wizard challenge, the Dementors and the fall at the Quidditch match, the Basilisk, the Philosophers Stone, several times at the Dursleys and the attack by Voldemort when he was a baby.

 

“Harry?”

 

“Hold on!” Harry snapped.

 

“Is it too difficult a question?”

 

“No, it’s about thirty.”

 

There was silence as Harry let them soak that up. Bruce recovered first.

 

“Do you want to say what those thirty times were?”

 

Harry shook his head sharply. “No.”

 

“How many of them were when you were a young child?”

 

“Give me a cut off age.”

 

“We’ll say thirteen.”

 

Harry shrugged. “About ten, maybe more, I don’t remember a lot from when I was really young.”

 

“There were ten instances that you remember where you almost lost your life before the age of thirteen?”

 

Harry remained quiet and let them speculate in their own minds.

 

“Harry, have you ever actually died and had to be resuscitated?”

 

“Once that I’m sure on, but I came through on my own, the others are sketchy.”

 

“How many other times?”

 

“Maybe two, no more than three.”

 

“Were any of those from before you were a teenager?”

 

“One, maybe two, the other maybe was when I was fifteen.”

 

“The one instance you’re definite on?”

 

“I was eighteen.”

 

“The trigger that made you come over to the US?”

 

“One of them.”

 

“Do you have any medical records of heart problems or diseases that could cause you to stop breathing or stop your heart from beating?”

 

Harry shook his head. “No, I’m healthy and so was my blood family.”

 

“Your blood family?”

 

“My Mother’s sister’s husband and his son, they had an obesity problem and all the ill effects that go with over eating and no exercise.”

 

Bruce nodded his understanding.

 

“This question is going to be difficult for you Harry, but how many people have you known to have died? You mentioned that all of your friends had died.”

 

That was the question Harry had hoped didn’t come up. “Including my parents?”

 

Bruce nodded and Harry sighed. “Including people I didn’t like and actively hated?”

 

“Yes, those too.”

 

“Then I can’t count them.”

 

“Why not, are they not people you have known to be killed?”

 

“That’s not what I meant, there are too many of them to count. It’s going to be hundreds.”

 

“What were you doing with your life?” Tony asked.

 

Harry looked at him briefly before looking back at the table top. He said nothing.

 

“Okay Harry, just friends and family first then, how many do you think?”

 

“About twenty-six.”

 

“And of those, how many did you see die personally? As in they actually died, right in front of you.”

 

“Nine.” Harry replied easily. He still had nightmares about them. His Mother, Sirius, Cedric, Dobby, Neville, Fred, Hermione, Snape and Dumbledore. 

 

“What happened Harry? Something terrible must have happened for all of those people to die, you said hundreds, hundreds of people don’t just die with no record of it.”

 

Harry stood up and backed away, he turned and fled to his bedroom, half expecting to be chased or dragged back and made to answer, but he wasn’t, they let him go and he curled onto his bed and cried.

He had suppressed it as much as he could during the meeting, but he couldn’t any longer, he needed to let it out in privacy.

He crawled over to the half unpacked hold all bag, the only possessions he now had. He dug out all of his photos and the albums closest to him, the only ones he now had left, the ones he hadn’t been able to leave behind, he wished now he had packed everything, but hindsight and all that, he hadn’t expected his house to be blown up, he had fully expected to be able to go back some when soon, when everything was sorted out, so he had brought a few essentials and keepsakes he just couldn’t leave behind, but everything he had left in the supposed safety of his home was gone now, blown up, burnt beyond repair or just missing completely. It made bile climb at his throat, but he swallowed it back down bitterly. It wasn’t the worst thing that had ever happened, at least no one had been hurt in the explosion and he still had his memories, if he could somehow get hold of a Penseive he would always be able to remember them, but Penseives were rare, expensive and hard to come by, though he had been looking for one for a long time.

Harry turned the pages of one of his only remaining photo albums slowly, taking in the faces and the smiles of the people in them. They were still under a stasis spell because Jarvis would report directly to Tony if he saw Harry with moving photos, but just seeing the faces and buildings of people and places he had once known and been to, it brought memories back fresh and clean and it made him smile softly. If he still had his memories, he hadn’t lost everything, he could still carry on.

These people in the photos had given their lives believing that there was a chance, a hope for a brighter future. They had all died believing he could finish Voldemort off for good, believing in him and his abilities. He had done it, he had died doing it, but the cost was so great, he almost wished he hadn’t been able to win and then he felt so guilty and ashamed of himself as he thought of the rest of the people, magical and Muggle alike, that would have lost their lives too if he had failed. But why, why did he have to be the sole survivor of his friends and family? Why couldn’t someone have struck him dead as soon as he finished off Voldemort? Why did he have to be the one to suffer on alone?

He didn’t know how long he sat and cried over his photos before he was aware that he wasn’t alone. He jerked his head up to look at Clint, who held his hands up as he came closer and sat on the bed.

 

“Steve wanted to know if you wanted dinner.”

 

Harry shook his head, trying to brush away and stop his tears from falling.

 

“It’s alright to cry Harry. I cry as well sometimes. I lost my parents to a car crash when I was very young, my mentors turned out to be evil, embezzling bastards who tried to kill me when I was fourteen and my own brother tried to kill me not too long after that when he found out I refused to take the money that was offered to me by my mentors when I caught them embezzling. They were the only people I had in the world until S.H.I.E.L.D scooped me up and I lost all of them, I was alone for years before Agent Coulson picked me up from the streets and put a bow in my hands once again, the police had taken the one I had from the circus away years before because it was a deadly weapon and I had no license for it. I loved that bow, I learnt to shoot and to aim with it, I can’t complain about my new one though, but the one from the circus will always be my first.”

 

They sat there in silence, reflecting as Harry turned another page in his album.

 

“I never wanted kids.” Clint told him after a while. “I was such a fuck up in life, in everything; I never wanted to subject a baby to my lack of parenting skills, to my screwy decisions or my lifestyle. But now that I do have a baby on the way, if you’ll let me into their life, I’m sure I’ll try my hardest, though you’re going to have to stop me from making screwy decisions.”

 

Harry snorted. “Only if you stop me from making a total fuck up of it. I’ve never really been around babies or young children or even pregnant people. I have no clue what I’m doing and I’m not ready for this.”

 

“I am sorry. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”

 

“I know, it wasn’t your fault, it was a happenstance of chance, it could have been anyone who got me pregnant, including one of my captors or torturers, I couldn’t imagine having a baby with Koli. I was angry at everything and I needed someone to blame, someone to be a target for my anger and you were so very easy, so convenient and that was wrong of me.”

 

“Wait, Harry, who’s Koli?”

 

Harry blinked. “I, the man who tortured me Clint, didn’t I mention that?”

 

Clint shook his head. “Jarvis, give the name to Tony please, and tell Steve we won’t be making dinner.”

 

“I could have sworn I mentioned it.”

 

“Do you know any other names?”

 

Harry shook his head. “No, that was the only name I ever heard from them and I think it was a slip up on both occasions it was mentioned.”

 

“That’s alright, why don’t you get some sleep hmm?”

 

Harry sighed and lay down. “Stay with me please?”

 

“I’ll stay for as long as you want me too.” Clint promised.

 

That made Harry smile as he curled up and tried to sleep, maybe talking wasn’t so bad, maybe telling them everything would help him feel better and would stop him from stressing so much, maybe for these few people he could break the Statute of Secrecy.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry woke up slowly and sluggishly, there was a comfortable weight and warmth against his back and it felt nice. He smiled, still half asleep and snuggled closer to the warmth, which suddenly moved and a band tightened around his waist.

Harry was suddenly just awake and he peered over his shoulder, not sure what to expect, but a peacefully sleeping Clint wasn’t it. Harry went boneless with relief, both at not being held against his will again and at not having any nightmares so the Avengers thought him even more pathetic than they already did.

He lay there for a long while, just thinking and wondering what his baby would be like, would he have a boy or a girl, would they look more like him or more like Clint? How would they act, what would they like? He was three months pregnant and he was only just starting to firm up, not in a muscle tone kind of way, but like there was a hard stone under his skin. A stone that would soon be a rock and would then grow to be a small boulder. He wasn’t looking forward to that.

He eased himself up and away from Clint and got out of the bed. He was hungry now and he wanted something to eat, no matter the time.

Clint must have been tired though, because he had heard that the Agent was a light sleeper and the smallest noise or movement woke him up, Harry had managed to get out of the bed and stumble over the edge of the rug without him waking up.

He made it to Tony’s penthouse, only to find the Avengers watching a film; they were all looking at him though.

 

“Sorry for interrupting.”

 

“That’s more than fine Harry, your dinner’s in the oven with Clint’s if you want it, is he awake?”

 

Harry shook his head. “He’s still asleep.”

 

Harry took his plate out of the oven and ate quietly, listening to the film and smiling when the Avengers laughed, particularly Thor, whose laugh could have shattered the windows. They were obviously watching a comedy and when he was done he washed his plate and fork and joined them, slipping himself between Tony and Thor. He smiled wider when Thor wrapped a huge arm around him and invited him to cuddle for warmth.

He was getting more comfortable around these people, like he had with Ron and then finally Hermione after the troll incident. He had been desperate for a friend, any friend, so he had worked his hardest at making friends with them both and they had both cared for him in return, but they were gone now, had been for two years and it was their loss that hurt the most, they had been there for the longest, had known him the best and now they were gone.

Was he unconsciously looking to make these people his friends, or was it just working out that way with the situation? He didn’t know, he couldn’t tell, but he liked it, if only he could get Steve to back off his over concerned mother henning and get Natasha to either apologise, get off his case or go away everything would be perfect. Well, near enough perfect.

Clint stumbled from the lift an hour later and Steve directed him to the kitchen to get his dinner. The film had long ended; Tony and Bruce had gone down to the lab after Tony had an epiphany, though he had those very often, and wanted Bruce’s input on his idea. Natasha had slinked off, thankfully, leaving Harry with Thor and Steve, not who he would have chosen to spend an evening with, but Thor was keeping him very entertained with stories from Asgard and what it was like growing up there, in a city of gold and light, as he claimed it to be. Steve was behaving, he was sketching in a leather bound notebook, he was over halfway through the book, so if every page was a picture, he was an avid artist.

Clint ate in the kitchen and then wandered over and sat next to Harry, even though there was more space on the other settee with Steve, but Harry didn’t mind, he was getting better with Clint now he realised that he was scapegoating Clint for what had happened to him. It wasn’t fair and it wasn’t Clint’s fault, but sometimes emotions and thoughts weren’t always rational and he hadn’t even realised until his own epiphany when he’d gotten the space he needed to actually think about it that he was being irrational in his blame of Clint.

He took a breath and shifted so he could recline against Clint, who had turned the TV onto a late night film. The other man’s body jerked in surprise at the action, but an arm quickly wormed its way over his shoulder and held him across the chest. Clint’s legs slipped up onto the settee and he pulled Harry down further, more comfortably and they watched the film quietly, Thor wandered off, but Steve stayed where he was, pencil scratching against the paper in different strokes. Harry didn’t ask what he was drawing; he didn’t want to disturb him as he seemed thoroughly engrossed in his drawing.

Harry stayed on Clint until the film went off a few hours later and he yawned widely.

 

“What time is it?”

 

“Almost one in the morning.” Clint answered as he stretched.

 

“Oh, I’m so tired and I shouldn’t be. I’ve been asleep half the afternoon.”

 

“You’re pregnant, it’s normal to feel like this, I think.”

 

Harry nodded. “Then I’m going to be spending a lot more time in my bed. Good night.”

 

“Night Harry.” Steve called out.

 

“Night.” Clint smiled.

 

Harry went down a floor in the lift and smothered several yawns on the way to his room. He closed the door and pulled over the little bolt lock and shedded his clothes, and crawled into his bed.

He stayed awake, touching his stomach, trying to feel the baby growing within, but there was nothing there to feel and there was no movement that he could pick up on yet.

He sighed and pulled the duvet higher, moving onto his side and curling up. It had been a stressful few days, traumatic really, but he couldn’t allow himself to dwell on it, if he thought about it too much, then he was going to break down, or go completely insane over it and he couldn’t allow that to happen, not just for himself, but for his baby, what would a complete and utter breakdown mean for his baby? He didn’t know, but it couldn’t be anything good or something his baby needed as it tried to grow and develop inside him.

Harry sighed and cleared his mind as best as he could, he thought about good things, like his changing relationship with most of the Avengers, how kind Phil was to him and how protective Director Fury had been and how supportive Clint was trying to be despite not knowing how. It was sweet, but Harry still wasn’t entirely comfortable, like when Clint’s hand had accidentally fallen below his belly button when they had been watching the film earlier, that had made him flinch and almost freak and then again when Clint’s fingers had brushed a nipple. It made him uncomfortable and unleashed a knee jerk reaction to flinch away to protect himself, but Clint had removed his hand as soon as Harry flinched and apologised, his hand moving back to the centre of his chest and all was forgiven and Harry could calm down again and relax.

They were both trying so hard, Clint had been trying hard from the beginning, but now that Harry was actually opening his eyes and mind and had become receptive of Clint’s attention and help, he could work with him and they could both help one another. Emotional and irrational he might be sometimes, but he wasn’t as foolish as some people made him out to be, he was able to analyse his behaviour and emotions and make the logical leap that he had been acting out of order, but he had only been able to realise that when he had been given the space he needed to think and realise it for himself.

Harry sighed and kept those nice thoughts in his mind and calmed himself down enough to sleep. Tomorrow he’d try as he had today to get more used to Clint, if he just took it one day at a time he had a better chance of getting used to it and accepting the change in his life than if he tried to get over it all at once and overcome everything in one go. His baby deserved to know its Father, no matter the circumstances of conception. Harry wanted to carry on living, despite what had happened to him and what had happened in his life, he had always wanted to carry on living and now he had a reason to, a better reason than just wanting to carry on, he had a baby to live for, a baby who would need him for years and years to come and he would always do his best by his baby. He swore it.

 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Right, I think this story is moving on nicely, another eight to ten chapters and I should be done with it, though plots never turn out how I want them too so it may be less or more depending on if I can get it to where I want it to be, we’ll see.
> 
> Someone asked me something but I can’t find the question, but it was something about Harry having wards on his house to protect against fire. That protection would have been on the outside of the property to stop fire from getting into the house and taking hold if it starts in the house, how do you contain an explosion from two trigger points with that much C4? The wards stopped the explosion from destroying the entire street, but it was centred in Harry’s house, the explosion overpowered the wards that are meant for a mere fire, not a triggered, concentrated C4 explosion, thus rendering the wards ineffective, they didn’t stop the fire, they just contained the explosion to Harry’s house.
> 
> Right, I believe that’s all, I hope you’ve enjoyed it and I’ll see you next update,
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	11. Moving On

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last Time
> 
> Harry sighed and kept those nice thoughts in his mind and calmed himself down enough to sleep. Tomorrow he’d try as he had today to get used to Clint, if he just took it one day at a time he had a better chance of getting used to it and accepting the change in his life than if he tried to get over it all at once and overcome everything in one go. His baby deserved to know its Father, no matter the circumstances of conception. Harry wanted to carry on living, despite what had happened to him and what had happened in his life, he had always wanted to carry on living and now he had a reason to, a better reason than just wanting to carry on, he had a baby to live for, a baby who would need him for years and years to come and he would always do his best by his baby. He swore it.

Chapter Eleven – Moving On

 

Another month and the end of October approached, Harry got quieter and quieter as the thirty-first loomed up over him and he knew the Avengers had noticed, they didn’t say anything though, but that they stopped talking sometimes when he came into sight of them let him know they were talking about him and were probably worried, but Halloween was a day of reflection and mourning for him, he had long since outgrown the children’s holiday and had come to realise it’s more sombre side.

He was now four months pregnant and he had a small bump where his baby resided, his relationship with Clint had grown to where Harry was comfortable with the Alpha touching and cupping the bump and talking about the baby. They were going shopping for bigger, baggier clothes for Harry to wear as his jeans were getting to be a bit tight at the hips.

Harry was happy to have the escort this time. He hadn’t exactly been afraid to go outside since the incident, but he definitely did not want to leave the Tower alone, though it wasn’t like he had any place to go now either.

Steve had wanted to come with him too, but Harry had shot that idea down quickly, two seemed like too much of a guard escort than accompanying him shopping, so he had taken Clint and left Steve to his morning of usual gym activities.

 

“Do you know where you want to go?” Clint asked.

 

Harry shrugged. “I can check out a few shops, I’m not a fan of shopping, but unfortunately it’s become a necessity.”

 

Clint just nodded, not sure what action or word would garner what response. They’d been working on that, but it was very slow going and the major setback of Harry shouting at Clint for smiling when he had fallen asleep on the settee during a team movie and woken up with an uncomfortably full bladder that he had danced all the way to the bathroom with was still fresh in all of their minds. He hadn’t meant to snap, but their teasing just hadn’t stopped and it had gotten out of hand very quickly and Harry had lost it with them all, but more at Clint because, as he had pointed (shouted) out it was Clint’s fault he was in this situation to begin with.

Harry’s first order of business was finding the little shop he had come to the last time he was in this shopping centre and get some real clothes that would support his pregnancy, not clothes that made it look like he was pregnant so the whole world knew. He wanted to hide it for as long as he possibly could, not advertise it to all and sundry.

He slipped into the shop when he found it again, Clint just behind him. He was wearing two guns; one at his hip and one at the small of his back, Harry had sighed as he caught sight of them before they had left, but said nothing about Clint coming on this trip armed, at least he hadn’t bought his bow with him and there were no doubts that he had wanted too.

Paul was behind the counter, his own belly absolutely huge now, a little boy sat on the counter with a colouring book between his legs and a box of crayons spilled around him.

 

“Hi Paul.” Harry said softly, trying not to startle him. He didn’t want to send the man into premature labour just from a shock.

 

Paul looked at him and then his eyes widened. “I was wondering where you had gotten too. I remember your eyes.”

 

Paul came out from behind the counter and hugged him like Harry was his best friend. It made him uncomfortable, but he hugged back awkwardly.

 

“Well you certainly have started showing.” Paul grinned. “You’re three months now?”

 

“Four.” Harry corrected with a grimace.

 

“I’m eight months and I was ready to give birth at least two months ago.”

 

Harry grinned.

 

“Is this the baby’s Father or just a supporting friend?”

 

“Baby’s Father, Clint Barton.” Harry introduced.

 

Clint offered a small twitch of lips, he was uncomfortable and he wrapped an arm around Harry to keep from touching Paul.

 

“We have a lot to do Harry, is this where you wanted to shop?” He asked the discomfort clear in his voice. Well aware that he was the only Alpha in a small confined space with two pregnant Omegas.

 

Harry nodded his head. “I need clothes; these ones are getting too tight.”

 

“All the clothing is along the back half of the shop.” Paul gave him a smile. “I don’t want to leave Benji, Killian left him once to show around customers and he toppled off the counter, I still haven’t forgiven him for that even if Benji wasn’t hurt.”

 

Harry smiled and went to look at the clothes. He was happy to note that they did a range of clothes that looked completely normal, but with hidden support for pregnancy. Harry only got a couple pairs of jeans, he didn’t need any tops yet, he had a couple of overlarge jumpers and tee-shirts he could wear still, but he was sure even those wouldn’t fit by the end. Maybe he could ask Steve or Thor for some of their shirts, they’d be big enough to fit him even if he was at the end of a pregnancy with sextuplets.

Harry checked the Avengers onesies and hid the Hawkeye one from Clint, who was staring at all the baby stuff awkwardly. Harry bought the Thor onesie for Thor personally; he meant it when he said he wasn’t putting his child in it and picked up the newly in stock Hulk onesie. He paid for them and buried them in the bag under his jeans.

 

“Are you ready?” He asked Clint, who snapped to attention and strode to his side quickly. “Bye Paul!”

 

“Bye Harry.” Paul winked back.

 

“What do you need now?”

 

Harry shrugged. “Food, I’m hungry.”

 

“Okay, do you want to find a food court?”

 

“Hell no! I want real food, not processed shit.” Harry said stubbornly. “Take me to a real restaurant.”

 

Clint couldn’t help grinning. “You’re so demanding, are you sure you’re not a Beta?”

 

Harry snorted. “Do I look like a bloody Beta, Clint?”

 

“You act like one.” Clint grumbled.

 

“I’m taking that as a compliment.”

 

“I’m sure you are.”

 

They came out of the shopping centre, or mall, as Clint called it and wandered around until they found a small restaurant.

It felt a lot like a date, which was probably why Clint was looking so nervous, but Harry didn’t mind, he ignored him mostly and perused the menu happily as his belly rumbled loudly with almost every dish that he read.

 

“See anything you like?” Clint asked quietly, looking through his own menu.

 

Harry hummed. “Yeah, I’m good. I can’t decide if I want water or fruit juice though.”

 

“So have both.” Clint offered.

 

Harry grinned. “I knew I kept you around for a reason.”

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry and Clint made it home without any problems to find Steve looking anxiously at the clock on the wall.

 

“Please tell me you weren’t timing us?” Harry demanded as he stretched out his leg quickly, it was starting to throb.

 

Steve jumped and spun to look at them, but he looked guilty.

 

“Really Steve, it’s been a little over two hours.”

 

“I know, I just worry about all of you when I don’t know exactly where you are.”

 

Harry rolled his eyes and hugged him.

 

“Don’t be so daft, I had Clint, we were just shopping, it was fine. Now I’m going to go and stash my new clothes before Tony gets a hold of them and starts teasing me about the hidden pregnancy support.”

 

Harry went down to his room and stayed there, putting away two of the bodysuits and leaving the one out for Thor. He’d write to the company who made them and point out their terrible slogan addition and see if they’d change it.

Harry took out a list he had written of all the things he needed and sighed. Just getting the stuff his baby would need would cost him a fortune, without buying a new house on top of it. He could afford it, but it seemed like an extravagant expense. Why did his baby need a cot, a bassinet, a carrycot and a Moses basket? Surely just a cot would do it? Maybe a carrycot combi that was also a pram too so he could walk with his baby and carry his baby with him when he needed to.

He shook his head and took out the plain white starter kit he had bought and crossed it off his list, one item down, a hundred or so more to go, or at least that’s what it felt like to him.

Harry sat on his bed and took the weight off of his throbbing leg; it still pained him, though not as much as before. The potions and salves were doing their jobs wonderfully. He stripped off his too tight jeans and massaged the fading burn scars lightly, with just his fingertips, before he got increasingly harder, massaging the damaged muscles with a groan. It was painful, but he knew as soon as he massaged out the stiffness, it would feel amazing.

As soon as he was done, he reclined back against his pillows and let out a pleasured sigh. He turned onto his side and decided to take a small, short nap, just until dinner time. He did not expect to sleep the whole night away and wake up during late morning of the next day.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry groaned and sat up groggily. He scrubbed his hand over his eyes and sighed as he realised the time. He huffed and stood up, pulling on a pair of sleeping trousers and changing his tee-shirt. His stomach gurgled and he went in search of a late breakfast, early lunch.

He was alone up on Tony’s personal penthouse floor and he enjoyed the peace while he had it. The Avengers probably had another team building thing going on, which is why they weren’t here breathing down his neck about sleeping for too long or for missing meals.

Harry finished eating, washed up his plate and wondered, not for the first time either, why Tony didn’t have a dishwasher up here. Everything else was super tech and had strange little gadgets that Harry was afraid to even touch, so why no dishwasher?

He curled up on the settee and watched TV for a bit. He didn’t much like TV shows or anything, but he had nothing else to do today. Tomorrow was Halloween, Tony was apparently throwing a party, but Harry was going to spend all day mourning in his room. He’d get in some supplies so he wouldn’t disturb the party, or have to venture into it to get what he wanted if he got hungry, but other than that, he’d leave Tony and the Avengers to do what they wanted and he’d do what he always did and hide away.

Tony wandered in an hour later, followed by his bickering teammates. Harry watched them arguing in between themselves, but he hid a smile when Clint broke off and came to sit by him. As his belly, and the baby inside, grew bigger, Clint got more possessive and touchy-feely. He tried to control himself, but he couldn’t always manage it, Harry allowed him small touches and acts of possession, but anything too possessive or where he was obviously and blatantly laying claim to him and the baby, Harry put a stop to it immediately.

 

“How are you?” The blond asked by way of greeting, sitting beside him and laying a hand on his belly through his shirt after just a moment of small hesitation.

 

“Fine, just bored.”

 

“You won’t be bored tomorrow!” Tony insisted. “I know you can’t drink, but you can still have some fun.”

 

“I’m not going to the party Tony.” Harry told him.

 

“What, why? It’s Halloween! You have to come.”

 

“My parents were killed on Halloween night, Tony.” Harry told him sadly and softly, as if it would take the edge off the horror of the sentence.

 

“So that’s why you’ve been acting strange all week! Thank fuck for that, we thought you were planning to run away or something.”

 

“Tony! Have a bit of respect and sympathy.” Steve answered angrily as he sat on Harry’s other side and threw an arm around him, freely offering comfort.

 

“It’s fine Steve. It happened a really long time ago.”

 

“Nineteen years ago.” Steve said softly.

 

“Twenty years tomorrow.” Harry corrected.

 

“But, you’re only twenty years old.”

 

Harry shook his head. “I turned twenty-one when I was unconscious in the med bay Steve. The thirty-first of July.”

 

“Why didn’t you say anything?!”

 

“I wasn’t really in my right mind when I first got out of there. I was unconscious for weeks afterward, then when I woke up I was stuck in the med bay with my memories slipping away from me and since then it hasn’t really come up. I don’t mind, I’ve spent my last three birthdays on my own doing nothing anyway.”

 

“You became legal to drink in this country and you DIDN’T have a party as soon as you were able!” Tony looked shocked.

 

“I don’t drink. Plus I was pregnant when I got out of there.”

 

“Ah, yes, the baby does put a damper on things, but you can still come to the party and we can use it as a late birthday for you.”

 

Harry shook his head. “My parents still died on that day Tony, thanks, but I don’t want a party, I don’t want anything but to be left alone to grieve as I do every year.”

 

“Whatever you want Harry.” Steve insisted.

 

“When’s your birthday Steve?” Harry asked curiously. “I know it was in the files I read, but I don’t remember any of your birthdays.”

 

“July fourth.” Steve said with a smile.

 

“He was ninety-five.” Tony told him with a grin.

 

“You look very good for ninety-five Steve. I’d go for you.” Harry chuckle as Steve blushed and glared at Tony for revealing his ‘real’ age. “You look better now than Tony does, even though you’re technically older, you’re really younger because of your decades trapped in that ice.”

 

“Thank you, Harry.” Steve said with a small, happy smile.

 

“Hey! You’re not supposed to gang up on me.”

 

“Whose birthday is next?” Harry asked.

 

“Bruce’s, in December. He’s going to be forty-four.”

 

“Thanks for that.” Bruce gave a shy smile.

 

“It’s alright Bruce.” Harry grinned. “With age comes experience and wisdom. Only Tony hasn’t gotten the hang of that yet.”

 

Tony snorted and laughed the loudest of them all at that. “I’ve got all the experience I need.” He told him with a wink.

 

“Oh please, I don’t want to know.” Harry replied with a chuckle.

 

“Clint’s birthday is after Bruce’s.” Tony said. “The seventh of January. He turns forty-two.”

 

Harry felt his body stiffening up, but he forced himself to relax. He was better than this.

 

“Whose is next?” He forced himself to ask as normally as he could.

 

“Tasha’s.” Clint said with a small hesitation. He had noticed, or felt, Harry freeze. Fuck. “Her birthday is March twelfth, she’ll be forty-five.”

 

“Then it’s yours truly.” Tony said with a grin, holding his arms out wide. “May twenty-ninth is the day this gorgeous, brilliant man came into the world and is the day he turns forty-three.”

 

“I never would have known, you’re so childlike, I thought you were around my own age, though your wrinkles give you away to anyone who can bear to stand that close to you for long enough to notice them.”

 

“You cheeky brat, if you weren’t pregnant I’d tell you to run, though now it would probably be more like waddle for your life.”

 

“I do not waddle!” Harry denied furiously.

 

“Every pregnant Omega waddles.” Tony replied.

 

“How would you know? You can’t stand to be around any Omega for more than a minute, let alone a pregnant one.”

 

“Only because I’m terrified that my virility will get them pregnant and I’ll be forced to bear the shame of having a waddling Omega on my arm.”

 

Harry made an angry sound in the back of his throat, but he was saved from answering when Clint touched his belly, reminding him that the doctor had told him to ease down on the stress and the anger, not easy when you lived in close confines with Tony Stark.

 

“Harry doesn’t waddle.” Clint defended calmly. “And when he gets big enough with my child that he does waddle, I’d be proud to have him on my arm as my Omega. That’s why only Omega whores who are after your money want you Tony, because the intelligent, self-respecting ones like Harry don’t want you as the Father to their children.”

 

“I think that’s more than enough.” Steve cut in. “We’re a team and you have to stop hurting one another with words!”

 

Steve stood and ruffled Harry’s hair, before taking Tony’s arm and leading him away, probably to have a pep talk with him, Harry didn’t care, he was angry. He did not waddle!

Clint reclined sideways on the settee, so he could wrap an arm around Harry and place a hand on the small bulge under his shirt. It was possessive, but Harry allowed it. Clint had stuck up for him after all.

 

“Thank you for saying what you did.” He said almost shyly, nearly blushing as he turned to find Clint’s face right next to his own.

 

“I meant every word. Anyone would be proud to have you as their Omega Harry, how could they not?”

 

Harry didn’t know what to say to that, but he longed to break eye contact with Clint, but he was no coward and he carried on staring into those blue eyes. He wondered if his baby would have those same summer sky coloured eyes.

Clint bent forward a bit more and the movement and the thought of his baby having Clint’s eyes together sent Harry reeling backwards. He and Clint shared a startled look, before Harry was up and running to his bedroom, not bothering with the lift but barrelling down the stairs. He didn’t stop until he had made it to his safe haven where he slammed the door shut behind him and bolted it quickly.

He slid down the door and clenched bloodless fingers into his messy hair. What the hell had just happened? Had Clint really tried to kiss him back there? Why? What the hell was going on, surely Clint didn’t have any sorts of feelings for him, that was absurd! Was it just a reaction to their closeness, or maybe it was even a reaction to seeing him with the baby inside of him, knowing that it was his baby, that had made him act as he had.

Harry breathed deeply, trying to recover from the shock of what had happened and the mad dash down the stairs and to his room, especially with his bad leg. He didn’t understand, he didn’t think he wanted to, he and Clint had been getting better, but that one wrong move threatened to undo everything that had been slowly and painstakingly gained over the last four months. What had happened and what the fuck had Clint been thinking?

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

After their talk together about confidence and issues and the boundaries of teasing pregnant, hormonal Omegas, Steve and Tony went back to the living room, bumping into Bruce on the way, who was going for a tea break after he hit a brick wall with his work that was frustrating him to no end.

They found Clint on the same settee, but with his face buried in his hands and his head and upper body bent over his knees. Harry wasn’t anywhere in sight.

 

“What did you do?” Tony asked with a knowing look.

 

Clint just shook his head.

 

“I’m waiting for the inevitable announcement from Jarvis to say that Harry’s trying to leave.” He answered before anyone could say anything more.

 

“Fuck, what _did_ you do?” Tony asked more seriously at hearing that. 

 

“Clint!” Steve pulled out his most authoritative voice when the silence stretched on and it became apparent that Clint was not going to answer Tony.

 

“I got caught up, he was letting me closer and closer, he lets me touch the baby when I want to, lets me hold and touch him…I…I tried to kiss him. He looked so beautiful, his eyes drew me in and I tried to kiss him. He panicked and bolted, probably back to his room to pack his stuff.”

 

Bruce sighed. “I’ll go and talk to him.” With that he turned and left them, going to the lift and going down a floor to speak to Harry, to try and convince him not to leave and that he was safest here, even with Clint.

 

“What were you thinking?” Tony asked. “In his mind you violated him, to just up and kiss him out of the blue, it’s no wonder he scarpered.”

 

“I know!” Clint said angrily, raising his voice just a touch. “I wasn’t thinking any of that, just how handsome and beautiful he looked, the weight of our child between us under my hand. I fooled myself into think he was mine, just for a moment I forgot, and I just tried to kiss him.”

 

“It wasn’t just a kiss to him Clint.” Steve said as gently as he could, even as the Alpha in him chomped at the bit to go and assure himself that Harry truly was alright and was still in his care.

 

“I know!” Clint said even angrier and louder. “I know Steve. I’ve ruined everything, I know. Just…just leave me alone.”

 

Clint got up and he went to leave.

 

“Where are you going?” Tony called out.

 

“To the range, I need to work out this anger before I can apologise to Harry, if he’ll even stand to be near me anymore that is.”

 

“Harry’s very forgiving.” Steve said softly.

 

“He already forgave me the first time. I can’t ask him to forgive me a second time.” Clint murmured sadly, before leaving to collect his bow and he hoped for a few uninterrupted hours on the range before Natasha found out, she was having her own problems with Harry, mostly because she just didn’t understand him or his mentality and Harry didn’t understand hers, but she was still wicked protective of him and she’d have his arse for this, he just hoped Harry calmed down before Pepper got home or he’d be rotting in his grave before the day was over.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Bruce knocked on Harry’s door and received no answer. He tried the handle, just to see if Harry was actually inside, to find it bolted from the inside. He sighed.

 

“Harry, it’s Bruce. I just want to know if you’re okay.” He said clearly. “Do you need someone to talk to? I swear I don’t mind if you do. I want to make sure that you’re alright.”

 

No one answered and Bruce settled himself ready to continue talking, he knew Harry was inside; he wouldn’t likely be sleeping after what had just happened, so he’d be awake and listening to him and Bruce took in a deep breath ready to talk to him through the door if he had to.

He was surprised when he heard something scrape across the door, like someone had stood up and the deadbolt slid across and the door opened. Harry had been sat on the floor in front of it, that wasn’t a good sign to begin with.

 

“You can come in.” Harry invited quietly and Bruce did as he was asked and stepped into Harry’s room, only it still looked like a guest room and Harry was still living out of a suitcase and a carry all bag, the only things he had left now after the explosion, his mind supplied sadly.

 

Harry sat on the bed and offered the same for Bruce, who took him up on it; thankful that at least Harry still trusted him and would allow him to come near him.

 

“How are you?”

 

“Shocked mostly.” Harry replied and he really did look like it. He was pale and his eyes were slightly too wide, though that wasn’t really a good indicator as Harry was naturally pale and his eyes were naturally wide and large, but Bruce looked at him more critically and noticed that he looked paler than normal and slightly clammy and his eyes looked a lot larger than usual and almost glassy. This situation with Clint had unnerved Harry.

 

“Understandable after what he did.” Bruce nodded, purposefully not mentioning Clint’s name, he doubted Harry would react well to it at the moment.

 

“Why did he do it Bruce? What purpose did it serve?”

 

“I really don’t know Harry.”

 

“Would it have been his Alpha instincts? Because of the baby?”

 

“I’ve never been in this position before Harry, I really couldn’t say. I’ve never had much contact with any Omegas, least of all pregnant ones; it’s too dangerous with the Hulk.”

 

“You’re not dangerous Bruce.” Harry told him softly.

 

The irony did not pass Bruce by; he had come down here to comfort Harry, only to end up being comforted himself. He smiled wryly.

 

“The Hulk is dangerous.”

 

“I bet he’s a big softie inside just like you.” Harry teased.

 

Bruce chuckled and wrapped an arm around Harry, waiting for Harry to flinch or shove him away, but Harry cuddled in closer, like he was affection starved. From what he had heard so far about Harry’s life, he likely was. It seemed that it was only Clint that made Harry flinch and recoil, not all Alphas.

 

“You’re not going to run away are you?” Bruce asked worriedly.

 

Harry looked up at him startled and he shook his head. “No. I have nowhere to run to anymore. My house was blown up remember?”

 

Bruce’s arm tightened around Harry. “I remember. S.H.I.E.L.D is actively working on it and they’re looking for the man you described. We’ll find who did this Harry; it’s only a matter of time.”

 

“Why are they trying to kill me now Bruce? The last I knew, they wanted me alive.”

 

Bruce looked away uncomfortably.

 

“Tell me.” Harry said firmly.

 

Bruce sighed. “It’s speculation, that’s all we have.”

 

“I’ll take that over nothing, I do not like being kept in the dark about matters that concern my own life and I doubt you’d like it if you were in my position, so tell me.”

 

“You didn’t break Harry, they couldn’t get the information they wanted from you, no matter what they did. They used some of the most horrific techniques imaginable, for you, an Omega no less, to stand up to that and still not break, they obviously don’t think they’ll be able to ever break you before you tell them what they want to know, or before you’re rescued again, so now they want to…dispose of you.” Bruce told him, tripping over the word ‘dispose’ Harry was a human being; no person should be disposed of like a piece of rotten meat or mere trash.

 

“But I’m no threat to them, why do they want to kill me?” Harry asked.

 

“S.H.I.E.L.D thinks you know more than you’ve told.” Bruce said and Harry reared back, his mind going double quick, flicking through painful memories for anything that was worth killing over. “Of course we, The Avengers, don’t think you do.”

 

Harry smiled at him and something in his shoulders relaxed.

 

“Why do you, The Avengers, think they want me dead?”

 

“I think Natasha hit the nail on the head. They want you dead because they couldn’t break you, she thinks it would be a prideful thing, that all the people in that building died, but you, an Omega, survived through the torture without breaking and are still living. She believes that the people who had you were not working alone, that they were part of a…corporation for lack of a better word, and the people in the building with you, trying to extract the information they needed from you, were only a small part of that corporation.”

 

Something flashed in his mind and Harry cocked his head as he explored it, combing through the memory that had been flagged up by what Bruce had said.

 

“You’ve thought of something.”

 

Harry nodded. “Give me a minute. It’s coming to me.”

 

Several minutes passed in silence before Harry looked at him.

 

“The tormentor, he mentioned that his bosses weren’t happy with him because he couldn’t break me, said they’d have to step it up, meaning my torture.”

 

Bruce swallowed. “Have you only just remembered this?”

 

Harry nodded. “They started using the salt after they said that. I was hallucinating, talking to myself at this point, I was so tired, so hungry, so thirsty, then they used the salt and everything was pain. I didn’t mean to forget.”

 

Bruce squeezed him and pulled back. “That’s more than alright Harry; we don’t expect you to remember absolutely every detail.”

 

“You need to tell Director Fury.”

 

Bruce nodded and stood up, picking up on the dismissal. If Harry needed space, he’d give it to him.

 

“Get some more sleep Harry; it doesn’t do to dwell on it too much.” Bruce said before he left the room, leaving Harry in peace.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Halloween wasn’t going well. In all the excitement with Clint, Harry had forgotten to get his supplies when he had the chance, so after an entire night and early morning thinking, he had fallen asleep, only to wake up in the midst of a full blown party, starving. Who started a party at half five in the evening anyway?! Tony Stark obviously, always the exception to everything, even decent party times.

Harry had no choice but to brave the party to get food and he wished he hadn’t had to. There wasn’t a single other Omega, he was the only one. Most of the people here were Betas, but there were a few Alphas, unbonded Alphas, some of whom trailed him as he fought his way to the kitchen to get food.

 

“Stark has never had an Omega at his parties before.” One Alpha said with a grin. “I’ve been telling him for years to bring a few in for entertainment.”

 

“I am not the entertainment!” Harry hissed grumpily, he was not pleased to have to come out of his room at all, but to actually run into Alpha dicks was only making his mood turn ever more sour.

 

“You’ll be our entertainment.” Another one said, this one taller with brown eyes.

 

“No, I won’t.” Harry said firmly, glaring at them.

 

“Oh come on, why do you Omegas have to put up a front, you’re all sluts and whores as soon as your heat comes around. You’ll all spread your legs for whoever is around, for whoever wants you, why pretend otherwise?”

 

“I have never spread my legs for anyone!” Harry shouted.

 

“That baby inside of you says otherwise.” The first Alpha said. “Did you get on the wrong side of an Alpha; I bet he put you right in your place.”

 

Harry glared at him. “Actually no, I put him in his place and he hasn’t touched me since.”

 

“Then he’s a weak assed fuck and doesn’t deserve to be an Alpha, letting a little thing like you dictate to him, you’re too weak to do anything, I bet if I pushed you’d just give in and spread your legs, every Omega does in the end.”

 

Harry was so angry that he actually regretted leaving his wand in his room, Statute of Secrecy be damned! But when that filth actually approached him, intent on pushing him to see if he was right about being able to rape him and completely humiliating him in the process, instinct took over and Harry kicked out with a bare foot and got the bastard right in the sternum.

Not expecting it, or the force of the kick from such a smaller person, the Alpha went down gasping, leaving Harry to glare at his friend.

 

“Are you going to try as well?” Harry hissed. “I’m four months pregnant and I can take you losers out, I only wish I was in full health so I could batter you both into the nearest hospital.”

 

“You little bitch!”

 

“That’s Mister Bitch to you fucker.” Harry snapped.  

 

The Alpha leapt at him and Harry was taken off guard, but not by much. The Alpha got a hold of him, but not a good hold and Harry smashed an elbow into his nose, feeling the crunch of bone.

The scent of blood enraged the Alpha and Harry swallowed as his friend caught his breath and stood up.

Thankfully Harry didn’t have to fight for himself, because Jarvis had informed the Avengers of what was happening and they came running to see him caught between two Alphas, both intent on trying to capture him and pin him down, their intent after that was obvious from their pheromones.

Harry drove his elbow back into the bastard’s nose again and caught an eye instead and the Alpha let go of him howling, leaving Harry to spin around and knee the other one between the legs. A fellow man he may have been, but he wasn’t going to miss an advantage when it was presented to him. Not when they were the ones attacking him.

Steve was there then, the look on his face was beyond furious and Harry was tugged into Clint’s arms with a soft ‘oof’. He squirmed but Clint didn’t put him down.

 

“Put me down, now!” Harry demanded furiously.

 

Bruce took Harry from Clint, a green hint in his eyes as he glared at Clint, who snarled at having Harry taken from him.

 

“I am not a pathetic little woman.” Harry ground out to Clint. “I don’t need…I don’t _want_ you to protect me! Just leave me alone!”

 

“I didn’t think you were coming down.” Tony said, his large brown eyes imploring. “I would have kicked them out otherwise, I swear. I didn’t think you’d come up here.”

 

“I wasn’t planning on it, but I got hungry and I couldn’t wait any longer.” Harry sighed, running a hand through his hair thoroughly aggravated.

 

“I thought you were going to get food into your room?” Steve asked, holding the two unconscious men in one hand by their shirt collars.

 

“I had more trouble to deal with yesterday.” Harry said, glaring at Clint. “I forgot to get it in.”

 

“Is the baby alright?” Natasha asked.

 

Harry placed a palm on his belly and felt around. “Baby seems okay as far as I can tell. I didn’t do much before you arrive and I only kicked once.”

 

“Maybe we should get you checked out just in case.” Steve said worriedly.

 

“Just get those fuckers out and let me eat and I’ll be fine.” Harry groused, accepting the food from Bruce when it was handed to him. His stomach growled loudly enough for them to hear it. “You see? My baby is wasting away!”

 

Tony smiled and came and sat by him, watching him eat.

 

“Go back to your party, you sitting there watching me eat makes me feel creeped out.”

 

“I’m sorry this happened to you.” Tony said softly, pulling him into a man hug, before getting up and leaving back to his Halloween party. Harry wondered why no one was in fancy dress if it was a Halloween party, but he didn’t care. It was Tony’s party; he could have any dress code he wanted, Harry didn’t want to know the reasons why.

 

Slowly the others trickled out after Harry practically shouted at them to get out, all but Clint, who stayed standing at the opposite end of the kitchen.

 

“I meant everyone, Clint.” Harry all but growled.

 

“I wanted to say I was sorry, for yesterday. I never meant…I mean I did, but I lost my self for a moment. I didn’t want to hurt or scare you.”

 

“So you wanted to kiss me, but you forgot that we weren’t mated, how do you forget something like that? I thought we were getting better, a bit closer, but in my mind, we weren’t close enough for kissing Clint. You made a grave error in judgement if you thought I would be that easy.”

 

“I don’t think you’re easy!” Clint burst out. “You the most stubborn, strong, hard headed, wonderful and absolutely amazing Omega I’ve ever met!”

 

Harry was shocked at that and Clint was breathing heavily, Harry doubted the he knew exactly what he had just said and that made it all the more real to Harry, that it hadn’t been a pre-meditated speech and that it was what Clint actually thought.

Everything was confusing and Harry rubbed his forehead firmly. He accepted that Clint hadn’t meant to do what he had done, that he hadn’t meant to get him with a child while he was still in captivity, it had been a circumstantial accident, Clint had saved him from staying in that place, being tortured further, but the kiss, it had been too much, he was frightened and he hated being frightened, it took him back to being with his captors and even further back than that, to being with the Dursleys.

 

“Clint please, just don’t. You’re pushing me too hard. I can’t deal with it. I’m trying, really hard too, but you need to try just as hard. Pushing and throwing yourself at me aren’t going to help the situation. I need time and you aren’t making it easier for me to forget.”

 

“You’re never going to forget.” Clint said miserably.

 

“No, no I’m not, but with enough time the pain I associate with it won’t be as raw, which will make it easier, you continually pushing at me just makes the memories all the more worse Clint, I’m sorry, but that’s the truth. I’ve been really good, tried really hard to get along with you, to let you be involved with the baby and everything, I’ve really had to force myself sometimes to give you an inch, but you can’t take a mile from me. It hurts too much, you need to slow down and just stop.”

 

Clint nodded at having it laid out like that. He felt like a fool and he breathed deeply. He nodded once again.

 

“Okay, I can do that, I swear. Just believe that I never meant to hurt you.”

 

“I do believe that Clint, for both times, but you need to know that I am trying, you’re just not giving me enough time or leeway to move on.”

 

“You want to move on?” Clint asked hopefully.

 

“I want it more than anything.” Harry said seriously, his eyes showing how determined he was. “I want to move on from this, to get on with my life with my baby, it’s all I want, but it’s hard to stay on top sometimes and these setbacks aren’t helping me Clint, please help me by being more respectful of my space, I don’t mind you talking about or to the baby or touching the baby through my belly, but stop pushing at me, I can’t handle it yet, I’m a mess Clint and I need help and support, not everyone pushing and pulling and making everything worse. I can’t do it on my own. I want to move on, but I don’t know how.”

 

Clint swallowed painfully. “I’ll do anything I can to help you Harry, just tell me what you want me to do and I’ll do it.”

 

“Just help me move on Clint. Just give the space and time I need to move on, please.”

 

Clint nodded his head understandingly. He knew now what he had to do, he was good at following orders and if it made Harry feel just the slightest bit better, he’d do it. He wasn’t entirely sure, but he thought he might have been falling in love with the feisty, but vulnerable Omega, but he had never been in love before, and the only family he had had, had either died on him, or betrayed him.

He wanted to try and have something with Harry, and not just because he was carrying his baby either, but he realised now that pushing those feelings onto Harry was making everything a thousand times worse.

It seemed strange, but the only way to get closer to Harry, was to back off and give him space. He could do that, he _would_ do that, no matter how hard or painful it became, Harry of all people deserved it.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I know, I know, it’s been too long since the last update, there’s no need to tell me, I already know. But between Rise of the Drackens, The Scaled Bits, Lycanthrope Factory, finishing off What Life is All About and my real life, this fic has been on a forced back burner and there was nothing that could be done about it.  
> I had a twinge recently to write for it again, so I did. I do not force myself to write any chapters, so it’s a complete guess when the next chapter may be out for any of my fics unless they are already written, which this one isn’t, so I am sorry, but Rise of the Drackens is my priority fic, this one isn’t, so the majority of my focus does go into my priority fic, but when that one is done and finished, this one can move up, though there aren’t a lot of chapters left for it, it’s still not priority and I have no idea when the next chapter will be, so make the most of it.
> 
> Thank you to all of you who are still reading this story, I know I’ve been terrible lately with the sporadic updates, but please believe that I’m trying, I am, but I have too much to do, too many fics to keep up with and not enough free time to dedicate to them all, so please bear with me a little longer, this story will be over soon,
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	12. Blackout

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last Time
> 
> Clint swallowed painfully. “I’ll do anything I can to help you Harry, just tell me what you want me to do and I’ll do it.”
> 
> “Just help me move on Clint. Just give me the space and time I need to move on, please.”
> 
> Clint nodded his head understandingly. He knew now what he had to do, he was good at following orders and if it made Harry feel just the slightest bit better, he’d do it. He wasn’t entirely sure, but he thought he might have been falling in love with the feisty, but vulnerable Omega, but he had never been in love before, and the only family he had had, had either died on him, or betrayed him.  
> He wanted to try and have something with Harry, and not just because he was carrying his baby, but he realised now that pushing those feelings onto Harry was making everything a thousand times worse.  
> It seemed strange, but the only way to get closer to Harry, was to back off and give him space. He could do that, he would do that, no matter how hard or painful it became, Harry of all people deserved it.

Chapter Twelve – Blackout

 

November was bleak and cold, at least in Harry’s opinion. Half of the Avengers team were walking around in tee-shirts while he huddled in one of his biggest jumpers. Tony was aghast at it and was threatening to buy him a new wardrobe. Harry warded him off with threats of a hormonal hissy fit. It was working so far, but his increasingly threadbare and holey jumpers were making Tony twitch.

Clint had been good to his word and had backed right off, but never enough to make Harry feel like he was being distant or cold, to him or the baby. He always asked after him first and then the baby second in the mornings and he still came up to him in the middle of the day to lay his hand over the baby and during the evenings, when they were watching some film together, he sat down first and let Harry chose where he wanted to sit, instead of pulling him to sit next to him or even following Harry and sitting beside him.

It was nice. Too nice. When Clint had been pulling him around and demanding this and that, it was easy for Harry to stay angry at him, for him to ignore and dislike him as just another Alpha dick. With Clint how he was now, Harry’s thoughts and feelings were getting confused; the baby wasn’t helping in that retrospect either.

 

“Are you hungry?” Steve asked as he offered Harry lunch.

 

Harry smiled and mentally shook his head. It was sweet how Steve was always fussing over him and the baby; he had come to accept it was just one of those things that was always going to happen. Steve was always going to worry and it didn’t matter how oppressive it felt, or how much it annoyed him, Steve was always going to do it, because it was just how he acted in these sorts of situations.

 

“A little bit.” He answered softly.

 

“Come and eat then.” Steve encouraged as he gently led Harry to the table and sat him down.

 

That was another thing; everyone always seemed to be making him eat. He was in his fifth month of pregnancy and he was showing a lot. The baby was growing well; he’d had two more scans since his last, both accompanied by an attentive and protective Phil Coulson.

Harry pressed a hand to his bump as he was given a plate of food, making his belly gurgle in anticipation, feeling the baby within kick at him. His baby was getting stronger and Harry had gone on another shopping trip to collect things he needed, but he hadn’t been able to get close to an estate agents with Clint trailing him. He’d have to do that on his own or he would have a massive uphill fight on his hands with all the Avengers, they just wouldn’t understand and they wouldn’t let him leave the tower.

Harry ate gutsily, wondering yet again if he could have a pregnancy food craving for anything and everything edible, all the books he had said that usually it would be for one specific food or item that he’d want more than anything else, that didn’t seem to be the case with him, he wanted any and all food and in any form he could get it.

 

“What are you doing today?” Natasha asked him.

 

They had worked at their relationship and worked together to have a few, admittedly strained, conversations, but they were working at it and things were becoming a little less tense around them both, which could only be a good thing.

 

“Not a lot. I’ve got to sort out the bathroom door and I was thinking of sorting out what I already have for the baby and see what else I need to get on my next shopping trip.”

 

“We have team building.” Tony said with a face that made Harry smile. He knew exactly what Tony thought of missing out in his work shop to go on team building exercises.

 

“I know, Steve told me yesterday.”

 

“How does he know before me?” Tony demanded.

 

“Because you whine about it endlessly.” Clint told him. “The later we tell you, the less we have to endure your whining.”

 

Harry laughed and nudged Tony. “You do whine a lot, but that’s okay. I still like you most of the time.”

 

“I’m sorry to leave you with the dishes again.” Steve said with a small blush on his cheeks.

 

Harry patted his shoulder. “That’s fine. I have next to nothing else to do. I’ll sort out the dishes, clean the sitting room and then go and repair the damage Thor did to the bathroom.”

 

“It was not my intention to do damage to the door.” Thor told him insistently.

 

“Do damage to the door? Thor, you ripped it off its hinges!” Harry pointed out with a laugh. “And not for the first time either.”

 

“The doors in Asgard were made stronger!” Thor told them loudly. “These flimsy, Midgardian doors do not offer the same protection.”

 

“That’s no reason to yank them from their frames or to kick them in when you feel like it.” Harry smiled, patting Thor’s shoulder as he went past to show that he was teasing.

 

“Are you sure you’re…” Clint started only for Harry to cut him off sharply.

 

“I can screw a damn door back onto it’s hinges. Pregnant or not it’s no problem for me, Tony’s already given me the new hinges and screws, now go to your team building before I break both your legs and make sure you’re unable to go anywhere again.”

 

“Speaking of broken legs, how is yours?”

 

“Tony!” Steve hissed.

 

Harry shook his head. “My leg is fine. I had a few twinges when I woke up, but nothing to the extent of the spasm attacks in the beginning.”

 

“That’s good to know, you’re healing.” Bruce told him kindly and Harry couldn’t help but smile. Harry really liked Bruce, an alpha he may be, but he was so mild mannered that sometimes it was very easy to forget what lurked always just below the surface. Not that Harry cared about the Hulk, he might feel differently if he came face to face with the giant, green rage monster, but he hadn’t and he found it very difficult to be afraid or even slightly wary of the mild mannered, calm and kind Doctor Banner.

 

“I think I might get full use of my leg back. I know the doctors told me not to expect it and to not get my hopes up, but with how quickly and how well it’s healing, I really think that the…the incident won’t leave me with any lasting, permanent damage.”

 

Harry went quiet. He had skipped over the word torture, he hadn’t been able to say it and now he was getting sympathetic, pity looks from the Avengers. He sighed softly.

 

“Don’t get your hopes up Harry.” Steve told him softly. “I know it seems like you’re healing well, but we have no idea how deep the muscle and nerve damage went or how long it may last. I just don’t want you to be disappointed or hurt if your leg just stops reacting to the medication and the physiotherapy. It may seem like it’s healing fast and it really is, the progress you’ve made in just five months is amazing, but just because it’s healing well now, doesn’t mean you’ll regain full use of it.”

 

Harry was silent. He knew he’d regain full use of it because of the potions and salves; he’d be unfortunate at best if he was left with just a small scar where the deep, severe burns had been branded into his leg, but he couldn’t tell them that, they couldn’t know he had magic, he would not be the one to break the Statute of Secrecy to a federal government branch, an American federal government branch at that.

 

“Way to upset him Captain!” Clint ground out angrily as he took Harry’s silence for upset and came to comfort him, one hand automatically falling to the growing baby bump.

 

“It’s okay.” Harry said with a smile. “I understand where he’s coming from, but I know I’ll get better. Now go, Fury will be livid if you’re all late for your team building lessons, especially twice in the same month.”

 

“Will you be okay?” Clint asked him softly as everyone stood and got ready to leave.

 

“I’ll be fine. I can handle cleaning and a bit of DIY on a bathroom door. Besides, I’ve got Jarvis here with me.”

 

Clint nodded and with a final rub to his belly he left Harry with the dishes. Harry took his time doing them; he dried them and put them away, humming lightly. He knew Jarvis was watching him, always watching, but Harry hoped that he could get out of the building without arousing suspicion, he was waiting until he was sure the Avengers team would be deep in their training or whatever it was that they did, so that he’d get a fair distance before they could come back to stop him, hopefully he could get a house and everything sorted and he could get back before he was tracked down and dragged back.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry was amazed by his own calmness and cleverness. He’d done the dishes, fixed the bathroom door before he cleaned the mutual living area of the Avengers. He’d filled the kitchen bin and tied it up and then just carried it out of the front door.

From there he had just walked happily through the city to find an estate agent’s. He had no doubts that by now Jarvis had informed the Avengers that he had done a runner and they would likely be looking for him.

 

“This is a hot buy amongst child bearing Omegas.” The agent told him gently with a look to the jumper stretched over his belly. “We have several families, mainly with children, buying up the surrounding houses, very lovely, all modern design and brand new.”

 

Harry flipped through the laminated photos of the large, spacious house. It seemed a bit cold and impersonal, all clinical whites and natural colour schemes, but it was a new house and he could set it up however he wanted it. He liked the overall layout of the rooms; it was four bedrooms, which seemed a bit extravagant, but all the two and three bedroom houses had been snapped up, it was only four or five bedroom houses left and there were only several four bedroomed homes left, soon he’d be stuck looking at five or even _six_ bedrooms and he didn’t want such a large house.

 

“I’ll take this one, I like the layout a lot.”

 

“Shouldn’t you wait for your Alpha?” The estate agent said a bit sharply and Harry gave her the look that comment deserved.

 

“I am buying this house myself, with my money.” Harry told her. “If you have a problem with that then perhaps you should go and fetch your manager.”

 

The woman blushed and cleared her throat nervously as she shuffled the papers on her desk. She obviously had a problem with the freedoms that Omegas had been given in the last decade and with the new Omega protection laws being implemented…well, there had been a hell of a lot of protesting against them and Harry would bet that she wasn’t the only person in the vicinity with a problem against the freedoms Omegas like him had been given and the new laws that now protected them.

 

“Yes, well…these are the documents that you need to sign.” The woman told him, trying to pretend that she hadn’t offended him.

 

Harry signed everything he was told to and he handed the cheque over with his deposit.

 

“You may come back and receive the keys and the deeds once the deposit clears.” She told him.

 

Harry nodded and slipped all of the relevant paperwork he needed to keep into his pocket and then he stood up.

 

“It was a pleasure.” He said dryly.

 

The estate agent didn’t seem to know what to say to that, so Harry turned and left. He wandered around the city a little, enjoying his small bout of freedom while he could, he would never be trusted again after this little stunt, he already knew that. The irony almost made him snort, the new protection laws had gone through and had been implemented quickly into society, he had been thinking about all the freedoms Omegas had been given, yet he was still trapped in a tower, a very, very large one admittedly, but still a tower just like he would have been before the new laws had been passed.

The Avengers had trusted him enough not to completely lock him in the tower, Jarvis had trusted that he was just taking out the rubbish and that he would come back, they wouldn’t make the same mistake twice, so he made sure to settle everything he needed to do that he couldn’t with an escort and then did a bit of baby shopping, hopefully to throw them off the trail of him putting a deposit down on a house for him and his baby, he knew they wouldn’t like the idea, that they believed he needed protection and twenty-four hour care, but he couldn’t stay with them full time, he just couldn’t. Once his baby arrived they would both need stability and a consistent routine, something that Tony Stark had never heard of. He needed his own space.

He put a deposit order down for a complete nursery set, bought a few more baby essentials and started off his stash of baby formula powder; he was going to need a lot of it in the coming months. 

Of course it didn’t take long for the Avengers to catch up to him, one Avenger in particular. Harry sighed when an arm slipped over his shoulder and he spun around startled to find Bruce next to him.

 

“Seriously, I can’t get even a small break, can I?” Harry sighed.

 

“Why did you leave the tower?” Bruce asked him.

 

Harry shrugged. “It was a spur of the moment decision. I put the rubbish out and I liked the smell of the fresh air, so I decided to go for a walk. I made it to the shopping area and decided to look for some more things the baby will need.”

 

Harry showed him the numerous bags of clothes, receipts and the pots of powdered milk.

 

“You’re carrying all of this? Harry these bags weigh a ton.” Bruce admonished him.

 

“They’re hardly a ton, Bruce.” Harry shook his head. “You’re supposed to be the smart one.”

 

“You’re five months pregnant.”

 

“Thanks for reminding me, I hardly noticed and had no idea how long I’ve been pregnant for.” He replied sarcastically.

 

Bruce sighed and nodded his head. “Come on, let’s get you back.”

 

“I’m not done yet. I’ve got more things to pick up today.” Harry told him as he turned and carried on browsing through the rack of baby clothes he had been looking through before Bruce had found him.

 

“Let me call the others then so they don’t pull the city apart looking for you.”

 

Harry waved him away and as Bruce stepped away, but still keeping him in sight, Harry savoured the last of his peace. He didn’t know why Bruce wanted to keep him in his sights though, it’s not like Harry could run while his back was turned. Not while he was five months pregnant, with several bulky shopping bags and with his still healing leg.

Harry had only just finished paying for his latest purchases when Steve joined them, almost completely panicked and he seized Harry by the shoulders and looked him over.

 

“ _Steve_! Seriously, I’m fine. Get off!” Harry hissed. “Fuck, a guy can’t even go shopping anymore.”

 

“I believe that’s more to do with you being an enemy target than anything else.” Tony’s voice floated over and Harry huffed deeply.

 

“Don’t you have enough for the baby?” Natasha asked as she just melted out of the crowd to join them.

 

“And you would know what and how much a baby needs, would you?” Harry demanded angrily. “The stuff I’ve got won't last two weeks when this baby is born.”

 

“You’re only five months pregnant; you have another four months until you give birth.” Clint tried to sooth, looking like he wanted to snatch him up and never let him go. It made Harry slide closer to Bruce.

 

“You tell me the percentage of Omegas who birth at exactly nine months and I’ll concede that you have a point, but the doctor has already told me that most Omegas birth in their seventh month, not the ninth, which leaves me just two months to get everything sorted! Do you have any idea how much I still have to do and to get before this baby is born?”

 

“Have you got everything you needed for today?” Bruce tried to ease him back from his anger.

 

Harry snorted. “Like I’m going to continue shopping with you lot tagging on after me.”

 

“Let’s get back to the tower then.”

 

Harry sighed and kept up his mask of irritation, at least until Thor showed up and when he started ranting about ordinary things and calling them Midgardian treasures he couldn’t help but smile. It reminded him of Hagrid on the London Underground or the spectators of the Quidditch World Cup trying to dress in Muggle clothing.

He’d done what he had set out to do and he knew the cheque would clear, he’d have the deeds and the keys to his house very soon and then he could start setting up his new house ready for his newborn baby.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry had been right about one thing. The Avengers did not trust him anymore. Whenever they had to leave because of team building, training or the once they’d gone to sort out a ‘threat’ to America, a rookie S.H.I.E.L.D Agent was left with him.

It was humiliating, but Harry took it out on the poor sap left to make sure he didn’t do a runner by annoying his babysitter by dragging up all his baby clothes and forcing the Beta male to sort through them with him. The agent was so uncomfortable touching any baby things that Harry made the poor man fold all the clothes several times, just to watch him squirm.

 

“You’re doing it wrong.” Harry complained, even though the poor agent was doing exactly as Harry had instructed him. “Do it like I showed you, you’re not folding the sleeves right!”

 

“You do it then!” The man finally yelled.

 

“I am a pregnant Omega; I’m in a very delicate condition! How do you think Director Fury will react when he finds out you’re adding to my stress in such a state?”

 

The poor sap paled and shook out the little shirt and started folding it again as Harry watched him from the settee, nibbling on a plate of snacks, his huge belly being used as a table for his food.

 

“Don’t tell the Director, I’m new to S.H.I.E.L.D, he’d have my head. I’ve only been an agent for a few months and everyone knows how protective he is of you as one of the company’s only remaining Omega agents.”

 

“I know he would have your head, so fold the clothes properly, exactly like I showed you.”

 

Harry went back to eating, he’d been told several times to stop ‘torturing’ the agents assigned to his protection detail, but if he was being punished with his lack of freedom then he was going to punish those assigned to him. It was a way for him to relieve his stress safely and in his opinion that could only be a good thing. The very last thing he wanted was for his magic to play up and thus blow up half of Stark Tower, or all of it.

The kicker was he actually liked Agent Vale, the man had been nothing but accommodating and kind to him, but the very thought that the man was his glorified babysitter was enough to boil Harry’s blood, he did not need a fucking babysitter when the Avengers were away from the tower and if he were honest, he could easily sneak away from Agent Vale, who pretty much did everything Harry told him to, it was Jarvis who was going to be the problem, but he was working on that, he’d gotten the letter in the mail this morning, it was time, all he needed now was a way out of the Tower without Agent Vale and Jarvis noticing. It wouldn’t be long, not now.

He pressed a hand to his belly and smiled as his child kicked him from within. He had no illusions that not only S.H.I.E.L.D, but the Avengers would find out where he now lived. Even if he’d used a false name, an entirely falsified passport and a different birth date and year, they would still find him, Tony was a genius and Bruce wasn’t far off and Fury would have his best people searching for him, so he had made it easy for them. He hadn’t changed a thing; he’d bought the house under his own name, with his own passport and with his own birth certificate. He didn’t want them not visiting, he liked them, just not all the time, they were a little overwhelming after a while, but he wanted a home for his child, a safe place that offered stability and safety, somewhere just for the two of them and they were not going to take that away from him, he’d had enough, it was time he broke away from the Avengers and stood on his own two feet again, he would refuse any and all attempts to bring him back to this tower after he’d moved in to his new home.

He’d gotten the letter from the estate agents, the deeds and the keys to his new house were ready to be picked up, he just needed to get away from Jarvis’ sight and sensors long enough to slip out of the tower.

 

“Agent Vale, I need the bathroom.” Harry announced.

 

“So?” The Beta replied confused.

 

“So, I can’t get myself up from this chair, would you help me?” Harry asked.

 

“I think I like you better where you are.”

 

“So you want to be the one to explain to Tony Stark why I’m sitting in my own piss, on his settee no less, when he comes home? You really want to be here when I tell the whole Avengers team, who will tell Director Fury, that you wouldn’t help me to the bathroom and I could no longer hold my bladder in my condition and then you left me to sit in my own piss like some sort of animal?”

 

Harry almost laughed when Agent Vale paled to a curled milk colour and jumped to his feet to help Harry stand. It was almost too amusing to play with the newbie Agent.

 

“Do you…you know, need help in the bathroom?”

 

Harry actually did laugh at that and for a second he thought about forcing the Agent to help him, but he couldn’t do it, he didn’t want anyone to see him without clothes, nor in such a vulnerable position or with his cock exposed. He shook his head as he turned sombre.

 

“God no, absolutely not. But I want those shirts finished before I get back.” He said with a grimace, trying to take the attention away from his sudden change of mood.

 

Harry went to the bathroom on the private floor and he took his time, hoping that Jarvis would keep his sensors on the man in the living room as he flushed the toilet and washed his hands. Getting past Jarvis was going to be impossible and no matter how annoying it was, he really didn’t want to blow Jarvis up by using his magic around technology, he couldn’t be sure Jarvis wouldn’t remember when Tony rebooted him anyway, so he couldn’t risk it even if he didn’t care about blowing up most, if not all, of Tony’s tower.

He didn’t need to however as he was just coming out of the bathroom when the whole house went dark. Harry swallowed hard. Tony’s tower was run on a separate generator to the rest of Manhattan, a clean energy source powered by an arc reactor, this was no general power cut.

 

“Jarvis?” Harry called out softly.

 

There was no answer, but then he hadn’t been expecting one. He backtracked to his bedroom and dug out his wand from a zip compartment on his suitcase, fumbling in the dark, he then carefully made his way to Natasha’s room, keeping a hand on the wall to help him navigate his way to Natasha’s room. If there was anyone who would have left a knife or a gun in their bedroom, it would be Natasha. If these were the same people who were after him, they would not take him alive, not again.

He found a knife when he cut the side of his hand on the blade, he cursed softly and slipped it into his belt before he made his way to Tony’s private staircase, the one he and Bruce used to get to and from their workshops; this staircase went from the bottom floor to the private bedroom floor only and they mainly used it when they were too tired and could barely drag themselves up to bed.

All of the locks were disabled with the power, even the one on Tony’s workshop, which no one was allowed inside, only a select few even knew the code, including Pepper, Tony’s best friend Rhodey and Bruce, not even the other Avengers were allowed in Tony’s workshop.

Harry felt like he was violating the man as he slipped through the glass doors and hid in his workshop, he hoped Agent Vale could take care of himself, because Harry’s priority right now was his unborn baby.

He saw the outlines of the remodelled Ironman suits that Tony was working on and the bits and pieces that littered his workshop that people would pay a fortune for a picture of, let alone the actual physical item. This was Tony’s home, one of them at least, and this was his work, his creations and Harry rolled his wand through his fingers. He was going to hole up here to keep safe and if he could keep these people from taking Tony’s inventions while he was at it, he would do so, Jarvis was offline, which meant that everything technological in Tony’s tower was offline too, if the electricity wasn’t switched on to interfere with his magic, nothing would go boom when he used it. Or at least he hoped that was how it worked; he cursed himself for not listening more in Magical Theory.

He breathed deeply and swallowed hard as he huddled down in a place that seemed secure enough, but still offered him a view of both doors to Tony’s workshop and beyond the one door, the stairs that led to the main part of the tower and through the glass, Bruce’s workshop opposite.

Everything was quiet and his heart was beating out of his chest, his nerves high strung and every sense he had honed in for the smallest sound or the merest movement.

He seemed hyper aware of everything and a small shadow, that’s all it was and Harry’s head snapped to the side to see the silhouette of a man skulking down the stairs towards the workshops. Harry swallowed painfully, his heart beating out of his chest.

The silhouette was joined by a second, larger shadow and Harry remained as still as he could, hardly daring to breathe despite the distance between them and the thick, soundproof glass that surrounded the workshops.

He pressed his hand to his baby bump and rubbed gently, he wondered if the Avengers were even aware of what was going on, if Agent Vale had contacted someone when the power had shut off or even if Jarvis shutting off had alerted Tony to something being seriously wrong. Had Jarvis completely shut down or was it only at the Tower? He was sure he’d read in Tony’s file that his main home in Malibu, California was where he had first started most of his projects, which stood to reason that Jarvis, who had been implemented with the Ironman suit, if not well before, would be based in Malibu too, so had the shut down at the tower shut him down in the Ironman suit that Tony had with him and at the Malibu house, or had Jarvis only shut down at the tower and had already informed the Avengers of what had happened and sent them back to the tower. He didn’t know, but it seemed like it was too late anyway as the door to Tony’s workshop was pulled open and a torch was flashed into the room.

Harry licked his lips and huddled down as much as he could in his hiding space between a hunk of metal that was probably a chest toolbox and a small stool. Not the best of hiding places, but it would have to do.

The two shadows came into the room flashing their torches, looking for something, or maybe they really were here for him and not for Tony’s stuff. More shadows moved at the staircase and Harry’s heart jumped, until they moved into Bruce’s workshop, torches sweeping. His heart sank; they weren’t here for Tony’s inventions, they weren’t touching anything, they weren’t picking anything up, they were looking for him.

Three seconds is all it took for everything to go wrong. Harry had been so focused on the men at the main staircase, that he hadn’t been looking at the second staircase, the one he had come down what had to have been only several minutes before.

He was grabbed from behind and the tool chest bumped and clattered and two torch beams almost blinded him when they swung towards him even as he kicked and thrashed in the hold that held him captive.

 

“There you are little Omega, do you know how long it has taken us to catch up with you?”

 

“Let me go.” Harry hissed.

 

Harry was punched hard in the face and he gasped, his hands grasping for his wand that was in his thigh holster, but the man holding him took it as aggression and held him tighter, throwing him about and making him dizzy and he actually heaved with how sick he was feeling at the rough treatment.

He was punched again and he felt the warm wash of blood, he saw a flash of movement and he brought his leg up just in time for a solid fist to hit it, right where his unprotected belly had been, the burst of agony to his already damaged leg made him scream, but a hard hit to his mouth stopped that short as the taste of blood burst in his mouth.

He wrestled with the man holding him, surprised that the man was strong enough to hold him as he curled his legs over his pregnant belly, putting his whole weight into the arms of the man holding him in order to protect his baby.

 

“What do you want with me?!” Harry yelled out desperately.

 

“You have information we need.”

 

“I don’t! I don’t know anything! They changed everything I knew before when I was found! Stop it and leave me alone!”

 

Harry was punched again and he actually saw stars, but his hand finally closed on the thin, length of wood and he yanked it out.

 

“What’s this? A stick?” The man in front of him laughed.

 

“Stupefy!” Harry yelled and the man flew backwards into Tony’s desk, knocking things flying in a flash of bright red light. Harry prayed that the billionaire forgave him for that.

 

“What did you do? What the fuck did you do?!” One man shouted out and Harry was hit again and the man holding him gripped his wrist almost tight enough to break it, twisting it to try and get him to let go of his wand.

 

“Is this one of Stark’s inventions? Get it off him Blake! Now!”

 

The man holding him ‘Blake’ wrestled him harder and Harry shouted off another stunner, hitting another man who flew backwards into the reinforced glass door, leaving a smear of blood behind.

Harry managed to hit all of them with stunning spells, even the man holding him when he pointed the wand over his shoulder, but not before the man ‘Blake’ had bashed his head hard against Tony’s metal chest toolbox.

He blinked in and out of consciousness, his mind blank and his vision black with dancing coloured dots. He felt so sick he actually heaved several times and as he blinked open his eyes once again, after another couple of minutes of being unconscious; Harry was able to crawl to his fallen wand and stash it back into its holster.

He crawled away from Tony’s workshop, not knowing if there were more enemies in the tower, and he went into Bruce’s workshop instead and found a dark corner to hide in, he was completely exhausted from his little trip just across the corridor from Tony’s workshop. His vision failed once more and he fell unconscious again in Bruce’s workshop, slumping onto the floor, completely hidden from the frantically searching Avengers team and the S.H.I.E.L.D Agents.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I’m already working on the next chapter for this one, so hopefully we’ll have another update soon, but Rise of the Drackens is still the priority story, but I hope you’ve enjoyed this chapter regardless and I’ll work hard on trying to get you all the next one.
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	13. Resolve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last Time
> 
> He crawled away from Tony’s workshop, not knowing if there were more enemies in the tower, and he went into Bruce’s workshop instead and found a dark corner to hide in, he was completely exhausted from his little trip just across the corridor from Tony’s workshop. His vision failed once more and he fell unconscious again in Bruce’s workshop, slumping onto the floor, completely hidden from the frantically searching Avengers team and the S.H.I.E.L.D Agents.

Chapter Thirteen – Resolve

 

Harry woke up slowly, the aches and pains in his body making themselves known as he became aware of where he was and the sensations running through his body, most of them pain, but there was coldness and hunger in there too, some lingering fear and from the way his body was shaking, likely some shock too.

He eased himself up slowly, grimacing as his face stuck to the linoleum flooring of Bruce’s workshop, semidried blood pinching his skin and making the splits start bleeding anew.

The first thing he did was press against his baby, who was moving gently inside him, from the ferocity of his growling stomach, his baby was probably as hungry as he was.

Harry dragged himself to the door; his bad leg would not support his weight, not even on his knee, so he forced himself to crawl out of Bruce’s workshop and to the stairs that led into the living room, dragging his leg behind him. The lights were back on, mostly, at least some of them seemed to be on, others were off, and from the shade of pale blue the lights were, Harry guessed that they were some sort of emergency lights.

 

“Jarvis?” Harry croaked out.

 

There was no answer, so Harry peeked into Tony’s workshop, to see it still a mess, but the bodies of the men that had attacked him were gone.

He took out Natasha’s knife, smearing blood all over the handle and he started crawling up the stairs slowly and painfully. He made it to the top, gasping for breath and wondering how the fuck he was going to fight anyone off in his condition when all the lights suddenly flared to life and almost blinded him.

 

“Got it!” Tony’s voice sounded happily from just ahead and Harry sagged in utter relief. The Avengers were here, which meant that S.H.I.E.L.D was likely here too. He was safe.

 

“Jarvis, scan for Harry.” Steve ordered, sounding so high strung that Harry found the strength to carry on crawling.

 

“He’s just outside the door, Sir.” Jarvis’ cool voice answered.

 

“He can’t be, maybe you need recalibration Jarvis.” Tony answered consideringly.

 

“He’s not lying.” Harry gasped out, as loudly as he could, dragging himself into the main living room.

 

He must have been a state just from their reactions alone, but he soon found himself in Clint’s arms, but he gasped and tried to get away, wriggling in pain.

Clint rushed him to the settee and sat him on it, kneeling down and hovering his hands over him, afraid to touch him.

 

“What happened?” Director Fury demanded.

 

“Where’s Agent Vale?” Harry asked, looking around the room, seeing the blood that was everywhere, but no glorified babysitter.

 

“He’s on his way to the hospital.” Steve told him. “We looked everywhere for you, where were you?”

 

“Work…workshop.”

 

Tony shook his head. “We found everyone from my workshop, it’s a damn mess, but I searched everywhere for you in there when I saw the bad guys knocked out, good job on that by the way, that was you wasn’t it?”

 

Harry nodded and held the knife out to Natasha, the hilt bloodied and sticky, but the blade only had a few smatterings of red on it, mostly from where he’d cut his hand on the blade when he’d found it in the dark.

 

“Makes a good weapon.” Harry told her as she eased the blade from a hand that he couldn’t completely control.

 

“This was in my bedroom.”

 

Harry nodded. “I knew you out of everyone would have a gun or a knife lying around. I hope you don’t mind.”

 

She shook her head. “As long as you’re alright.”

 

Harry nodded jerkily as Bruce checked his vitals and what not.

 

“I think I am. It doesn’t hurt so much anymore.”

 

“Because you’re in shock.” Bruce told him.

 

“I hit them with the hilt, I…I wanted them alive for questioning. It was me they wanted, when they came into Tony’s workshop, I thought maybe they wanted his stuff, but they were looking for me. I’m not safe anywhere.”

 

“The baby?” Bruce asked him calmly as Clint jerked in shock, being reminded that Harry was pregnant. His first thought had been of Harry.

 

“Fine, they tried…tried hitting the baby, but I moved my leg in the way, I can’t walk on it now, I think it made it worse, unless…unless he had a knife too, I thought it might have been a punch, but would a punch make me unable to stand on my leg? If they’ve ruined my progress I’ll kill them myself.”

 

Bruce moved to see his leg, touching it lightly and pressing, he hissed and Harry knew it was bad news before Bruce even opened his mouth.

 

“It was a blade, Harry.”

 

“Then it’s a good thing I saw the movement of his hand and moved my leg when I did or it would have gone through my stomach instead.”

 

“Where to in my workshop were you hiding?” Tony asked curiously. “I seriously couldn’t find you and I know every inch of that workshop.”

 

Harry shook his head. “Not yours, I…I crawled to Bruce’s workshop, after…after I woke up.”

 

“You were unconscious?” Bruce asked, moving to look at his head.

 

Harry nodded slowly. “I went in and out, only for a few minutes I think, then I went to your workshop, no one would think to look for me there with the mess of Tony’s workshop opposite, I fell unconscious again.”

 

“You’ve got a few cuts and splits on your head, looks like blunt force trauma.”

 

“They were punching me and one hit my head on Tony’s tool chest, only my leg was hit with a knife. They wanted me alive I think, or at least they aimed for nonlethal areas when picking a target to stab at, they would have killed the baby though.”

 

Bruce nodded. “You’re going to need to go to the hospital Harry, just as a precaution. Also your leg needs looking at, you can’t leave an open knife wound in it.”

 

Harry sighed and nodded. “I don’t think I can walk.”

 

“You didn’t actually think we’d make you walk, did you?” Fury asked him.

 

Harry blinked, not understanding until Clint took him into his arms and stood with him carefully.

 

“Just don’t take me to Doctor Mandes, or the one who does the ultrasound, Doctor Bennet. I don’t want to be molested.”

 

“I won’t let them.” Clint promised.

 

Harry’s vision went black, but he could still hear a rhythmic thumping under his ear, but it wasn’t long before he couldn’t see or hear anything at all.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Clint refused to leave Harry’s bedside and the Avengers had refused to leave the room as a S.H.I.E.L.D doctor was examining Harry. He kept his eyes on Harry’s face, trusting that Steve of all people would beat the doctor to a pulp if he so much as breathed wrong on Harry.

When Tony had interrupted Fury’s report, Steve had been the first to chastise him, but when Tony had told them confusedly that Jarvis was reporting a disturbance at the Tower; his heart had gone into his throat.

Jarvis had clinically reported that all power to the Tower had been shut off with an electrical surge that shouldn’t have happened with the Tower being on its own grid and that Jarvis had been shut off at the Tower to was too strange and his first thought had been of Harry, at the Tower alone except for a brand new Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D who was just making sure Harry didn’t run more than anything, he had not been trained and he was definitely no field agent. He wouldn’t protect Harry with his life like a seasoned, trained agent would, Harry was right; he was a glorified babysitter who happened to be employed with S.H.I.E.L.D, nothing more.

Clint had raced to Stark Tower, knowing that Tony would reach there first as the Ironman suit was not restricted by traffic lights, not that Natasha gave a damn about a red light as she sped through the city to the Tower that had become their home, but she still couldn’t go through buildings or other cars.

It was all in darkness when they entered, hearing Tony on the upper levels, shouting and shooting off jet propulsions at an enemy they didn’t know. They had joined him to find a lot of blood and the newbie Agent Vale in a heap on the floor, Tony stood over him protectively. Harry had not been in the room.

Words couldn’t describe how fearful he’d been when he hadn’t seen Harry where they’d left him; they’d gone through the Tower with a fine toothed comb, trying to ignore the destruction of their home. Cupboards had been ripped apart, beds flipped, doors kicked off. In hindsight it had looked like they had been looking for someone, that someone had been Harry. Harry who was pregnant with his baby.

Tony’s workshop had been ripped to pieces, mess everywhere and bodies everywhere too. Five of them, all unconscious, some bleeding, some were only just regain consciousness, but Harry had been nowhere in sight.

The only conceivable thought to them at that time had been that Harry had fought off the five knocked out in the room, but had been overwhelmed and taken by force and that thought panicked him and he had wanted to go out immediately to look for him, but they had no idea where to look for him, just like the first time Harry had been taken, only this time Harry meant so much more to him and not just because he was carrying his baby either.

Tony had worked quickly and tirelessly to get the power back on in the Tower while the rest of them searched for Harry, just in case he was still there, hidden away somewhere, they hadn’t found him.

Tony had checked every inch of his overturned workshop, in all the nooks and crannies he knew so well and he had come back without Harry. Clint had thought that his heart was going to break, his mind going around and around and he felt like he couldn’t breathe. It had taken all of his S.H.I.E.L.D training not to have a full blown panic attack right then and there.

When Tony had gotten the lights back on, not just the emergency lights, Clint had wanted to run right out and search the Tower again, just in case they had missed something, but Jarvis had flickered back online with the lights and Steve had asked for the newly turned on Jarvis to scan for Harry.

It had taken him several seconds to register that Harry had dragged himself up from the workshops, that he was battered, bruised and bleeding, obviously in pain if his grimace was any indication, blood oozing down his face from his head, his hands covered in blood, one wrapped tightly around the handle of a bloodied knife.

Then he had dashed to Harry, fighting through his panic and shock at seeing him so hurt in such a delicate condition. Harry had yelped and writhed in pain in his arms, so he had quickly gotten him on the settee for Bruce to check over, but he couldn’t leave Harry’s side, he didn’t want to as he held one of those small hands in his own, a bit like he was doing now as the doctor looked Harry and the baby over carefully, aware that he had the eyes of several Avengers, a high ranking S.H.I.E.L.D Agent and the Director no less watching him.

 

“He’s going to be fine, I’m not happy with the state of this leg, it’s healed amazingly well, but the stab wound is deep and you said he couldn’t walk on it?”

 

Steve shook his head. “No, he was dragging it behind him, crawling. He couldn’t walk.”

 

“It could have been the shock, or it could just be pain of having an already injured leg injured yet again. We’ll need to do more tests and wait for him to regain consciousness to check the physical ramifications of what has happened, he has a mild concussion, he’s alright to sleep, but we would like to keep him in observation. The baby seems unharmed, but we have a specialist on the way to confirm, but otherwise, he’s going to be fine, we’ll get his psychiatrist down to see him, he was in shock when he arrived, but the mental consequences of this attack could reach further than you might think.”

 

“What do you mean?” Clint asked, his heart missing a beat.

 

“Harry saw the Avengers Tower as a safe haven, an impenetrable fortress where he could hide and be safe within. This safe haven has now been attacked and compromised, cracked open. It’s unlikely that he’ll feel safe there again.”

 

“You’re worried that he won’t want to go back.” Bruce said softly.

 

“It is entirely feasible that he will no longer feel safe now that he’s been attacked there, it is also likely that this could negatively affect his mental health if he is forced to remain somewhere that he doesn’t feel safe and reminds him of the attack. But then of course he might not feel safe anywhere and the effects of being attacked twice, no…three times now, all in places he feels safe, means that he might not feel safe anywhere, in which case he will likely have a breakdown.”

 

“Is that really likely?” Steve asked.

 

The doctor sighed. “The pregnancy won’t help in this case. He’s been attacked twice while pregnant, this time he’s heavily pregnant and the fear for his baby will add to his own fear, which makes a breakdown more likely, the sooner we have him talk to his psychiatrist the sooner we’ll know how he’s thinking and what sort of state he is in mentally.”

 

Clint sighed and held Harry’s small hand tighter. He swore then and there that he’d do his utmost to help Harry through this, Harry and the baby both and he was sure that the other Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D would help him too, they had to find these people who were attacking Harry, they had to find them and get them into S.H.I.E.L.D custody and find out why the hell they were chasing after Harry so hard before neutralising the threat. It was only going to get worse after the baby was born; Clint had no doubts that Harry would give his life for their baby. He had already protected their baby, a baby that he hadn’t wanted in the first place, with his own leg, his already injured leg, and now he might not even be able to walk again, but he hadn’t even thought about that when he had done it, all he had thought about was protecting their unborn baby.

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

Harry woke up slowly and groggily, floating on a cloud of drugs. He could tell he was being weaned off of the drugs because his mouth was as dry as bone and his thoughts and memories were fuzzy along with his heavy body that he couldn’t move properly.

 

“Can you hear me Harry?” A voice asked him softly, all Harry could make out was that the voice was male.

 

He tried to turn towards that voice, tried to sit up, open his eyes, something, but all he could manage was a raw sounding grunt and a wiggle.

 

“Harry? It’s Clint. Can you open your eyes?”  

 

Harry breathed deeply and forced his eyes open, but his vision was so blurry it didn’t really matter as he still couldn’t see anything; he closed his eyes again and forced himself to turn onto his side, his leg jerking and sending pain through his body.

He opened his eyes again and groaned as his brain realised he was in the med bay.

 

“Seriously?” He croaked out harshly.

 

“You had a bad stab wound to your leg.” Clint told him gently.

 

“I told you not to say anything!” A voice he didn’t recognise said angrily.

 

“I will not keep anything from him.” Clint defended. “I did that once and he still hasn’t forgiven me, I won’t do it again.”

 

“What happened?” Harry asked Clint softly.

 

“The Tower was attacked.”

 

Harry frowned as he remembered being cornered in Tony’s workshop, pulling his leg up to protect his baby from a flash of movement.

 

“The baby?” Harry asked, trying to sit up.

 

“The baby is fine Harry, I promise, just lay still for a moment.”

 

Harry calmed and settled back down in the bed.

 

“When can I leave?”

 

“You’ve just woken up.” A doctor told him.

 

“Want to leave.” Harry said hoarsely.

 

Clint handed him a polystyrene cup filled with melting ice chips. Harry took a mouthful and sucked on them, glad that he hadn’t been given a bendy straw, not again.

 

“You need to stay for a little longer Harry, but don’t worry, I’m not leaving.” Clint assured him.

 

Harry was still a little fuzzy on the details, but being told there was an attack at the Tower helped jumpstart his memory over the remaining drugs in his system. The doctor could be as unhappy as he wanted to be, Harry was very happy that Clint had trusted in him enough to tell him what had happened when he had asked. He was capable of dealing with what had happened to him and he was old enough to make his own decisions.

 

“Just relax for a little while.” Clint soothed him. “You went through something terrible, you need to stay calm.”

 

“I am. I feel okay, a bit groggy from the drugs, but okay, I’m getting quite used to this.”

 

“You shouldn’t have to!” Clint hissed angrily.

 

“I know, but I’m no stranger to being targeted Clint, though I’ve never been pregnant before, but the baby’s fine, you said that our baby is fine.”

 

Clint smiled then and nodded. “ _Our_ baby is completely fine, yes.”

 

Harry grunted softly as he felt his eyes getting heavy again. He frowned at his IV line, wondering if someone had given him more drugs, but the doctor wasn’t anywhere near him.

 

“You need rest and the drugs are still in your system Harry, get some more sleep. I’ll still be here when you wake back up.”

 

Harry nodded slowly, sluggishly and he blinked, then he did again only this time his eyes stayed closed and he drifted into another deep, dreamless sleep.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry was sat up in bed trying to stab through a bowl of porridge with a spoon. It wasn’t nearly as satisfying as spearing a sausage with a fork, but he wasn’t allowed to eat such ‘heavy’ foods and he wasn’t allowed a fork, oh they could feed him porridge all they liked because it was healthier for him and the baby, but he knew why they had done it, especially after the visit from the psychiatrist that morning. They thought he was crazy or something, that he was suffering from stress from being attacked so many times in such a short amount of time.

He rammed the spoon down into his porridge and snarled. He hated being picked apart by other people, they didn’t know what he was thinking, they didn’t know how he’d behave or react and they certainly didn’t know how he was feeling. He didn’t care how many certificates and doctorates they had he knew himself better than anyone and he didn’t need a damn degree to tell himself that he was fine.

True he had been a bit shocky and shaken, he honestly hadn’t thought he’d be attacked at the Tower, he’d underestimated how much these people wanted him, how far they were willing to go, but with seven of them now in custody he hoped that S.H.I.E.L.D and the Avengers got somewhere in finding out who these people were and what they wanted, this couldn’t just be because he had survived a few torture sessions, it couldn’t be just because he hadn’t broken or that he was still alive, it just couldn’t be.

Growling and trying to put the spoon through the bottom of his bowl, Harry tried to puzzle it out, but it just made him angrier. He should have hit those bastards harder in the head; they were all talking of bright lights and flying through the air and now there were questions floating around that he couldn’t answer.

 

“Do you need some help with breaking your bowl, friend?”

 

Harry looked up at the hulking form of Thor and he smiled thinly.

 

“No, I think the doctors would be unhappy with me if I broke the bowl, but thank you for offering Thor.”

 

Thor sat down in the chair by his bedside, looking a bit out of place as he examined the room.

 

“Where is Clint?” Harry asked curiously, trying to hide his hurt. Clint had promised him that he wouldn’t leave, but he had woken up that morning to find Clint gone.

 

“The lady Natasha demanded that he get some sleep and when Clint refused, the lady Natasha had him drugged for his own good.” Thor bobbed his head. “He has not slept since you were brought here for medical attention, though I am told that you and your babe are well.”

 

Thor’s hand covered Harry’s bulging belly and he petted it gently.

 

“The baby and I are fine. I had no idea that Clint wasn’t sleeping, I’ve been here for days. I assumed he was sleeping when I was.”

 

“Nah, he’s been staying up guarding you all night.” Tony said as he swaggered in, coffee in hand and rubbing his eyes.

 

“He didn’t have to.”

 

“He thought you’d feel safer with him sat next to you, guarding you.”

 

Harry frowned at that. “But I’m fine. I don’t need guarding and I don’t feel unsafe at all.”

 

“Even after what happened?” Tony questioned with a raised eyebrow.

 

“Well, yeah. It’s happened before.”

 

“Not when you were this heavily pregnant and not at the Tower.”

 

“I was attacked in my own home Tony, if that didn’t get to me then why would being attacked in the Tower?”

 

“The psychiatrist thought…”

 

“Fuck what the psychiatrist thinks.” Harry growled. “I know myself better than anyone and if I say I’m fine then I’m fine thank you!”

 

Tony nodded and dropped the subject, even though he was dying to ask Harry about the five captives that had been found in his workshop. All five of them had the same story of bright lights, immense force and flying through the air to crash into walls without anyone touching them. They had thought it was concussion, as all of them were suffering from it badly, but they were all genuinely afraid and just the threat of putting them in the same room as Harry had them squealing like piglets. A fact that was delighting Nick Fury, who was questioning and threatening about everything they needed to know. They were getting some much needed answers, but not everything.

 

“When am I getting out of here now?” Harry asked.

 

“Today if everything goes well.” Tony answered with a nod.

 

Harry smiled then; a sincere smile and he actually ate a spoonful of his, now cold and slowly congealing, porridge.

It took hours for him to be released and the psychiatrist still wasn’t convinced that he was ready to leave, but the doctor allowed him to be discharged when the psychiatrist started stressing Harry out and he started reacting badly to his presence.

Steve didn’t leave him for even a moment as they entered the Tower and Bruce was watching him carefully, but Harry was just very glad to get out of the damn hospital. He might feel differently later, but at the moment, he was just grateful to have a bit of space and was now able to walk more than a few inches from a disinfectant scented bed even if it was with the help of crutches.

He fell onto the settee and sighed happily. He’d gone to visit Agent Vale while he was in the hospital and the man was fine and was healing nicely, but he was now not sure he wanted to stay with S.H.I.E.L.D, Harry didn’t blame him, it was days after the attack and he was still covered in bruises and healing cuts and that was just the damage that Harry could see.

 

“Do you need anything?” Steve asked him.

 

“Where’s Clint?” Harry asked, answering a question with a question to keep from answering, Steve had been fussing about him for an hour now, since it had been confirmed that Harry was leaving the hospital on crutches.

 

“He’s in his room, sleeping. He really needs it.” Bruce told him.

 

Harry nodded. “I want to thank him for staying with me, even though he didn’t have to.”

 

“Oh Harry! How are you, are you alright?” Pepper asked as she came to check on him. “I got Jarvis to tell me when you came home.”

 

“I’m fine Pepper, I promise. Thank you for asking.”

 

Pepper gave him a smile and rested a slim hand on his belly before turning to Tony and briefing him on this and that to do with the company she ran for him.

 

“Are you sure you don’t need anything?” Steve asked.

 

Harry swallowed to calm his temper. “A drink would be nice. Tea I think, it’ll calm me.”

 

“Are you nervous here?” Bruce asked.

 

“No, but I don’t like fussing. You know I don’t like fussing.”

 

“We’re just worried.”

 

“I know, which is why I’m holding on to my temper, but tea will help. Honestly, I am fine, but all this fussing is making me feel nervous and uptight. If you lot are nervous, what hope do I have?”

 

“I shall protect you!” Thor swore, loudly, sitting down heavily next to Harry and placed an arm behind him. “No one shall get to you when the mighty Thor is here.”

 

Harry chuckled. “Thank you Thor, I feel safer already.”

 

Harry was fussed over, pampered, he had everything done for him and it only got worse when an angry Clint woke up and hunted down Natasha to yell at her for drugging him before he realised that Harry was sat right there. It was a bit stifling, but he endured it until he begged off, saying he was tired and was going to bed.

The Tower had been completely fixed up and nothing remained to show that it had been attacked, but Harry knew. He could remember it vividly and he got angry with himself. He forced the memories away as he climbed into his bed after changing and he made sure the crutches were within reach and that his wand was under his pillow. He would not be caught out again without it like he had when he had been abducted the first time and now after this latest attack, he was not going to let it out of his reach, if the Tower was attacked in the night, he didn’t want to spend precious time fumbling through his suitcase for it.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Clint became like his own personal shadow after that and Harry found it very, very strange that suddenly the Avengers didn’t have team building exercises or any sort of briefing at all now. Tony blamed his heavy work load, Bruce blamed a breakthrough in his research, Thor just shrugged, Steve blushed and Clint and Natasha were surprisingly released from their S.H.I.E.L.D duties for reasons they claimed ‘they couldn’t divulge.’ Harry wasn’t fooled and he wasn’t sure how he felt about it, but after another session with the psychiatrist, he wasn’t in the best of moods.

The psychiatrist was now asking him about the bright lights and exactly how he had subdued the intruders. He didn’t know what to say, he kept trying to claim that it was the concussion, that he’d hit them hard with the hilt of the knife, but apparently S.H.I.E.L.D had done forensics on the knife and only his own blood was on the knife, none from the men he’d supposedly hit over the head. 

He fingered the cuff of his jumper nervously, letting a fingertip touch his wand to make sure it was still there. He’d packed everything he had in his suitcases ready. He hoped that he could just pick up his stuff and high tail it out as quickly as he could while he could, he knew the Avengers had been told to watch him, which is why they were always here now rather than doing their jobs, but he just didn’t know if they were doing it out of friendly concern or if they’d been told to do it as part of their job, keeping a professional eye on him because he was now a suspect after what he’d done in the workshop.

 

“It doesn’t matter.” Harry whispered to his belly. “Everything I did is worth it for you. Anything and everything is worth it for you, even if they turn on me and try to lock me up, but they don’t know the half of it sweet one, they can try, but I’ll get us both out of here, with our stuff if I can, but it’s not important, not even the sentimental stuff if it means I keep you safe.”

 

Harry sat back and sighed, running his hands over his belly. He was too afraid to even speak aloud when he was in the room on his own now because he was sure Tony had Jarvis recording everything he said and every move he made. It was a constant feeling of having eyes on the back of his head and it made his spine twinge every time he forgot himself and did something without thinking first.

He shouldn’t have to! He shouldn’t have to feel like he had to think before he moved or opened his mouth, this was no way to live and it was stressing him out, it was making him feel sick and all the psychiatrist wanted to talk about these days was the bright lights and the attack in the workshop. The one time he felt like he needed to talk to a professional and all the professional wanted him to talk about was the attack, it was so frustrating that he’d started sinking into sullen silence whenever he was forced to see the man. It didn’t help that he never knew when the psychiatrist was coming, so he couldn’t just refuse to come out of his room.

Sometimes he had afternoon sessions; sometimes the man was there for breakfast. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, it didn’t matter. It was always a different day, always a different time and completely random. All he could do now was sit silently and try to ignore the psychiatrist when he came around for a visit unless he just refused to leave his room at all and didn’t unlock the door, but then he would have issues with eating and drinking and going to the bathroom, so it wasn’t practical to stay in his room all day on the off chance that it was the day that the psychiatrist was coming around.

He was alone for now, an illusion of privacy as he was sure Jarvis was watching him closely, hell maybe all the Avengers were down in Tony’s workshop watching him on a live feed, he didn’t know, but he wasn’t going to forget where he was, he wasn’t going to forget who he was dealing with. He had been a part of S.H.I.E.L.D; he had been a S.H.I.E.L.D agent, he still was as a matter of fact. They were foolish if they thought he would forget his training just because he was now pregnant, or maybe they thought he was the one who was unhinged after all these attacks, they were even more foolish if they thought that. He was Harry Potter with several titles after his name, he had survived a magical war, he had been on the front lines, he had been in the thick of the fighting, he had been the target for Voldemort and his Death Eaters, he had lost any and everyone who was even remotely close to him because of that. He had survived through much more than a few simple attacks where he was the target because he was connected to an agency that held top secret information. He had been the main target in the war, him, not merely because he had information, but because he was alive and breathing. Voldemort and the Death Eaters wouldn’t have stopped if he’d thrown all the information his brain held at them, they wanted him dead and humiliated and nothing less than that would have sufficed.

He’d been through much more than a few mere attacks, he’d survived through much more and now he was alone, he’d been left alone in the world and he’d found himself a niche to live in, only now he had a baby. A baby who would love him unconditionally and would depend on him for life. He wasn’t alone anymore, he’d never be alone again, he had a child to nurture and look after now, he had someone he could be strong for, someone to live for, if he ran now it would be easier, safer for his baby if he travelled while pregnant, but it was difficult with the entire Avengers team around, Clint could climb any structure, Natasha was wicked fast, Thor and Tony could fly, Steve would never give up, he had an unlimited amount of adrenaline and stamina and Bruce could turn into the Hulk. He’d never get away from them fast enough to Apparate and he couldn’t risk doing it here, in the Tower, in case he was seen or recorded by Jarvis. That would defeat the purpose of him getting away from all of the questions, he’d show them instead and he didn’t know what was worse, they might not believe him if he told them, if he showed them they’d have to believe it. No, he had to wait for an opening to take a chance to run, but before then, he had to get himself ready to run. He needed to be ready at any moment and he needed a plan.

Perhaps if he offered to cook for them and he put a few drops of sleeping potion in their meal, he’d make his way out in the middle of the night and Jarvis wouldn’t be able to rouse them with the potion in their system. He could get well away then, but first, he had to find a way to send an owl to St Fiacre’s Medical Centre for Magical Injuries and Illnesses without anyone noticing, he’d order a mild sleeping potion that wouldn’t require him to see a Healer to order. He would find a way to do it and then he’d ward his new house so tightly that no one would ever be able to get into it. He and his baby would be safe; he just needed the opening to get out now.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Happy Christmas Eve lovelies! I hope you’ve enjoyed this chapter and I hope you’ll join me on Facebook if you haven’t done so already. If you have any questions please ask them and I’ll see you all soon.
> 
> I hope you’re all well and I hope you’ve all enjoyed your day, whether you celebrate Christmas or not, I’ll be back tomorrow with an update for Lycanthrope Factory and another one for the Scaled Bits, I love you all,
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	14. Escape Plans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last Time
> 
> Perhaps if he offered to cook for them and he put a few drops of sleeping potion in their meal, he’d make his way out in the middle of the night and Jarvis wouldn’t be able to rouse them with the potion in their system. He could get well away then, but first, he had to find a way to send an owl to St Fiacre’s Medical Centre for Magical Injuries and Illnesses without anyone noticing, he’d order a mild sleeping potion that wouldn’t require him to see a Healer to order. He would find a way to do it and then he’d ward his new house so tightly that no one would ever be able to get into it. He and his baby would be safe; he just needed the opening to get out now.

Chapter Fourteen – Escape Plans

 

His opening came sooner than he would have thought. He had burst out into frustrated tears when he was told yet again that he couldn’t leave the Tower and he had sobbed about feeling trapped and imprisoned like Omegas were before the law reforms and Steve had felt so terrible about it that he had offered to take Harry to the park over the road as Natasha, Thor and Tony made a very quick exit from the hysterically emotional, crying pregnant Omega.

Harry stayed close to Steve, making a show of always staying within touching distance. This paid off as he walked around the snow dusted park, having ditched his crutches the week before and now nearing December, it was cold, but he didn’t have to pretend to show how happy just a walk in the park made him and that made Steve happy, which also put down his guard.

When his shiny new cell phone rang, he excused himself politely to take the call, leaving Harry an opening to find the owl he used to order from the hospital that stayed in this park for him.

He found it in the tree and called it down giving it the letter he’d already written and sent it straight up into the air before moving back to where Steve would see him when he turned back around. He twirled on the spot a bit to keep warm, but he didn’t move any further than he had to reach the owl, there was no need to give the game away, he wouldn’t make his job harder by trying to run now, better to stay and let them trust him more so they’d let up more and he could have a better chance to escape with all of his belongings.

Harry’s spine tingled and he stopped and looked around at his surroundings more closely. He was still an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D, he remembered his training and his senses worked fine, currently they were playing up, something was off and he could feel it.

There were children running around in giant padded coats and wellies, their cold cheeks flushed pink under woolly hats, people hurrying around with gloved hands and earmuffs, all doing Christmas shopping and trying to get out of the cold, but there was one man on a bench opposite him, staring at him. His hand was in his coat, a coat so long and puffy that it could have been hiding anything.

 

“Please, not again.” He murmured softly to himself as he turned to face Steve and he ran as fast as his six month pregnant belly and bad leg let him.

 

“STEVE!” He cried out. “ _STEVE_!”

 

The gunshot was loud, even in the busy park. All noise stopped at the sound of it and then people started running and screaming, bundling up children and running with them and Harry ducked behind a tree, his heart racing.

Steve was right there then, gathering him up and shielding him between the tree and his own body, peering out at the man with the gun.

 

“I was on the phone to Clint; the team will be here shortly.”

 

Harry had no doubts about that, the park was near enough across the road from the Tower.

 

“Stay here and stay hidden.” Steve told him and Harry nodded. “I mean it Harry.”

 

Harry nodded harder and more vigorously and then Steve was gone, chasing after the bad guys that had been shooting at him. He tried to catch his breath and regain some calm and some composure.

It took a while but he managed it only to be scared half to death when he was grabbed from behind. He twisted and lashed out, only to punch Clint full in the face, his nose exploded in a burst of blood and Harry laughed, partly in relief that it wasn’t a bad guy and partly out of nerves because Clint looked thoroughly pissed off.

 

“Bis isn’t bunny!” Clint said thickly.

 

Harry pressed his lips together. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it; I thought you were going to hurt us.” He placed a hand on his prominent belly.

 

Clint calmed down and sighed, which caused a bubble of blood to form, which made Harry give a nervous giggle again.

 

“Are you alright?” Bruce asked as he ran over to them. “Clint, what happened to your nose?”

 

“I’m sorry, that’s my fault. He came up behind me and I punched him.”

 

Bruce shook his head and helped Clint with his nose, bending him over forwards and cracking his nose back into place with a horrible grinding of cartilage on bone. Harry felt sick as his stomach turned.

 

“I am sorry I hit you Clint, you startled me.”

 

“That’s okay. I probably should have said something, but you are alright, aren’t you? You and the baby? I heard the gunshots over the phone, and your shouts for Steve.”

 

“Both fine.” Harry insisted. “Now go and beat the shit out of that man for shooting at us, try and take him alive too, he might know where the rest of his group are.”

 

Clint nodded with a grin and left him to go and do as asked. Bruce did not leave and instead tried to herd Harry back to the safety of the Tower for a check-up.

Harry allowed him to do so as he peeked out to see Steve and Natasha holding the arms of the man who had shot at him between them.

 

“Can’t even go for a fucking walk in the park.” He grumbled.

 

“This is more serious than you realise.” Bruce said carefully.

 

“No, I understand perfectly Bruce; I’m still a S.H.I.E.L.D agent. That he was waiting in this park, just across the street from the Tower, means the people who are after me knows where I’m staying and they’re watching me closely, just waiting for me to go wandering, alone or not, it doesn’t seem to matter to them, but we already knew that because they attacked the Tower, remember? They want me bad, Bruce, what I can’t work out is why. The only people I saw are dead, I had one name and it led to nothing and I don’t believe it’s because I’m still alive, something is going on here and I can’t work it out.”

 

They made it into the Tower safely and Bruce took him down into his workshop for the check-up, even though Harry insisted that he was completely fine thank you very much, but he still subjected himself to the check-up.

He was fine, the baby was fine and he hadn’t been hit with any bullets or debris, he was so happy that he hugged Bruce in thanks as he hopped off of the examination bed and went up to the main floor of the Tower.

Thor, Natasha, Steve and Tony weren’t there, Clint however was and Harry went to check on him, looking over his bruised face and his swollen lip. He’d cleaned himself up, so at least he wasn’t covered in blood anymore, but Harry still went to him.

 

“Are you okay?”

 

“I think that should be my line, how are you and the baby?” Clint asked back.

 

“Perfectly fine, I wasn’t hit by anything and the baby is very happy. How’s your nose?”

 

“It’s getting better now that I’ve taken some aspirin.” Clint said with a grin.

 

“I’m sorry I hit you.”

 

“That’s okay, I’m just glad that you’re both safe, now come and sit down, Tony got some more of that British tea you like imported in this morning.”

 

Harry watched, a little surprised really, as Clint rushed around making him tea as he sat on the settee in the seating area. He sighed, Clint was back to trying too hard. He wasn’t surprised after the scare, he _had_ almost been shot, but he did hope that it didn’t last too long. He didn’t want to snap at Clint again, he was actively working on it, but if all six of them started fussing around him again he knew he was going to break and snap at them all.

Accepting the cup of tea from Clint, Harry sipped at it happily as he thought about what he was planning to do. Could he really drug these people with sleeping potion and then just leave as if they’d done absolutely nothing for him?

They had spent the last six months making him comfortable, helping him to heal, helping him adjust and being friends with him, could he repay them by drugging them and running away?

But he couldn’t stay here! He just couldn’t, for his and his baby’s sake. He had stayed as long as he had because he’d thought he’d be safer in his more vulnerable pregnant state as his leg healed with the aid of potions, now he knew that he wasn’t safe anywhere, so did it really matter if he was here or in his own home? At least at his own place he could ward the entire structure without fear of it blowing up and then no one who wasn’t tied into the wards he’d put up could get in. He and his baby would be much safer there and he’d have more privacy too, he thought as Clint brought over some biscuits and watched him intently as he nibbled at one and sipped his tea.

 

“Thank you Clint.” Harry said, hoping that Clint would get the hint and leave him to his thoughts.

 

“What are you thinking about? I’m not Natasha; I can’t keep up with the emotions flashing through your eyes.”

 

“Good, I don’t want anyone deciphering them.” Harry said sternly.

 

“I’ve said the wrong thing again. I’m sorry.”

 

“That’s the problem though, isn’t it? You always say the wrong thing Clint!” Harry snapped. “And do you know what’s worse? It’s actually the truth! You shouldn’t be trying to read every little emotion or nuance of body movement from me! Natasha definitely shouldn’t! If you want to know how I’m feeling, how about you just ask?”

 

“I’m sorry, I…”

 

“Leave it.” Harry said as he forced himself to relax against the settee and placed a hand over his softly moving baby.

 

Harry went back to his thoughts, trying to blot out the guilt he felt for being such an utter prick to Clint, he didn’t know if it truly was anger over the fussing and nit picking, or if he was trying to vent the fear of almost being shot while taking a simple walk in the park. Very soon it was going to get to the point where he wasn’t going to be able to leave the Tower and if the Avengers gave that order, then he’d never be able to escape, with that order, Jarvis could block and lock the doors after he’d drugged the Avengers and then he’d be in a shit load of trouble, but if Tony didn’t give that order to Jarvis, there was still a chance he could get out of here and to his own place.

 

“What can I do to make it better?” Clint asked softly.

 

Harry raised his gaze to look at him and he clenched his jaw tight to stop the apologies spilling out at the look on Clint’s face. Then he had an idea to help further his escape plans.

 

“If you could stop Steve from mother henning me to death, that would make me feel loads better.” He said a bit stiffly.

 

If Steve was left to wind himself up and get into a panicked, worried state, then there was more chance of all the Avengers overreacting and Tony giving the order, or even semi-order, for him to never leave the Tower, which he was sure was all Jarvis would need to keep him in the Tower when he tried to escape.

 

“He won’t be back for a while; they’ve taken the…perpetrator, to Fury for questioning. Steve will likely wear himself out before he gets back to the Tower.”

 

“Well if it looks like he’s going to work himself up when he does get back, head him off for me. I’m too tired to deal with it.”

 

“Do you want to take a nap?”

 

“No I do not want to take a nap!” Harry hissed through gritted teeth. “If I did I’m perfectly capable of going down to my room and going to sleep Clint, I don’t need _you_ to come with me and hold my hand.”

 

Again Harry stomped down on the guilt as Clint averted his gaze and loosened his body in a relaxed, calm and nonchalant way that just screamed to Harry that it was a front to hide how he was really feeling.

Harry swallowed and rotated his shoulders to ease his tension. He couldn’t deal with this for much longer; he was half hoping the other Avengers came back, just so that he didn’t have to deal with Clint. Then he remembered with a mental head slap that Bruce was here. If anyone could make him feel better it was Bruce.

He stood up suddenly and Clint’s head snapped to him sharply, proving that though he had been feigning looking out of the window, he’d been looking at Harry through his peripheral vision.

 

“What’s the matter? Where are you going?” He asked panicked.

 

Harry could have handled any other question but that one. He would have made up some excuse about going to the bathroom, but his anger surged hot and bright and before he knew what he was saying, the words had poured out of his mouth, and words could never be taken back once they’d been said.

 

“I’m getting the fuck away from you!”

 

Harry was in the lift before he calmed down and realised that perhaps he should have controlled himself a little better, but he just couldn’t take the picking and pulling anymore, his every move was questioned, his every emotion was analysed, it was like living in a science lab, being constantly under the microscope.

He made it to Bruce’s workshop to find the man deep in his work. He hated to disturb him, but he went into the room because he didn’t want to be alone and between Bruce and Clint, he’d take Bruce. The soft whoosh as the door opened and then closed behind him had Bruce calmly finishing what he was doing and then looking behind him to Harry.

 

“Was there something you needed?” Bruce asked calmly as Harry hopped up onto the examination bed that he’d left only a short while ago.

 

“Clint’s micro analysing me again, is it okay if I stay here with you until the others get back?”

 

Bruce nodded. “Of course, you don’t mind me working? I’m hardly good company at the moment.”

 

“I want the company Bruce, I just don’t want the endless small talk or scrutinising, I just want to lay here, thinking and doing nothing. I don’t want anyone’s focus on me.”

 

Bruce nodded and Harry let his head fall back in utter relief as Bruce went back to his work. Bruce got it; he truly understood what he needed. He knew that he didn’t want to be asked how he was or how he was feeling or about what happened. Bruce knew that he didn’t want the talk or the looks or the attention, but the kind, beautiful, wonderful man knew that the one thing he did need was not to be alone right now. Harry loved Bruce in that moment.

He lay on the examination bed and closed his eyes, thinking, feeling, sorting himself out, going through his memories and listing what he’d felt at what point and it was then, in the soft quiet of the workshop, where no one was bothering him, disturbing him every few minutes or picking him apart, that he realised he _was_ lashing out from fear in a delayed reaction to what had happened in the park.

He exhaled softly so that he didn’t disturb Bruce from his work and he laid himself back more fully and he worked on easing himself into a meditative state so that he could exorcise the negative emotions and feelings from his mind.

He didn’t know how long he’d been in such a state, he didn’t know how much time had passed and he didn’t remember right away what had happened or where he was, but he was aware of a ruckus just behind his head and a voice on the other side of the room issuing a hissed shushing noise, but it was too little too late as he blinked back into consciousness as a stream of memories and thoughts filtered through and he became aware of where he was, what had happened and why he was down in Bruce’s workshop.

He sat himself up and peered over one of his shoulders to see the five other Avengers team members standing in Bruce’s workshop looking chastened.

Bruce threw his hands up and stood up from where he’d been sat.

 

“You couldn’t have come in any quieter!” He berated them. “What did you think I was doing to him to warrant such a loud and chaotic entrance?”

 

“We didn’t think you were doing anything to him, but after what happened and then Clint said he ran off…”

 

“Oh, did Clint also tell you that he was the reason that I ‘ran off’?” Harry cut in, glaring at said blond.

 

“No, he left that part off.” Tony answered as he slid his gaze across to his teammate.

 

“I’m fine, I came down here with Bruce because I didn’t want to be alone and Clint was driving me insane with his questions and looks. Bruce understood what I wanted and what I needed and now I feel so much better. I needed peace and quiet, to be able to relax without fear of my every move being studied and cross-examined with my emotions. I am not a helpless infant who needs to be coddled and led around by the hand! I can look after myself and I was doing so long before any of you came along. Just leave me alone to sort myself out on my own, if I need help, I’ll ask for it.”

 

Steve looked at him closely, before he came and hugged him tight.

 

“I understand, I just wanted to say that I’m sorry I took that phone call and that you were put in danger yet again.”

 

“It’s alright Steve; none of us knew that a simple walk in the park over the road would end in such a way. It’s not your fault or anyone’s fault really. I’m okay, the baby is absolutely fine and you have someone to question so maybe we can finally figure out who wants me dead so much.”

 

“If anyone can get information from that bastard, it’s Fury and Coulson and they’re both working him over at the moment. We left that poor bastard in their capable hands.” Tony bobbed his head.

 

“They don’t usually do that themselves.” Harry said with a frown.

 

“This isn’t a usual circumstance.” Natasha told him. “Fury is livid that someone is targeting one of his Agents like this, he wants those responsible eliminated. Quickly.”

 

Harry nodded his understanding and stood from the examination bed, ignoring that Steve’s hands fluttered over his waist for a moment in the incredibly unlikely event that he slipped or fell.

 

“Thank you for letting me stay Bruce, and for not acting like I’m an incapable, idiot Omega who’s only purpose comes around with my heat periods.”

 

“You’re welcome Harry and no one here would ever think that of you.”

 

Harry sighed. “Sometimes I wonder.” Was all he said as he gave them a tight smile and then went up to his room.

 

He got his baby things out and the notebook he’d asked for from Tony with the list of everything he needed and he checked that he’d marked down everything he had so that he knew what he still needed. He wondered if he’d be able to get that nursery set sent to his new house…he’d never get it all moved and out of the Tower if it came here and it was brand new.

 

“Jarvis?” He called out softly.

 

“Yes Harry?” The AI answered promptly.

 

“Do babies really need a cot, a bassinet and a Moses basket? Or can I get by with just a cot? I can’t see how a baby needs all three, it’s not like I’ll be putting my baby down all over the place, though maybe I’d need something to put the baby in if I need to answer the phone or something so it might be handy if I had somewhere to place the baby outside of their nursery, but surely a cot and a carrycot is all I need.”

 

“A lot of parents can get by with just a cot and a carrycot, Harry.” The AI answered smoothly.

 

Harry nodded and scribbled out the Moses basket and the bassinet on his list and then looked it over it again, he nodded again.

 

“Okay, then I just need a mountain of clothes, even more nappies and I need a bottle and steriliser set. Do they come in a set?” He asked with a frown.

 

“Yes Harry, I have found several sets online that are labelled as complete starter sets that include a steriliser, spare bottle teats and pacifiers.”

 

“Paci-what?” Harry frowned before the light bulb went off. “Oh, dummies, of course. How much are the sets Jarvis? I want a natural one if I can, as close to natural as I can possibly get.”

 

“They range from a hundred and sixty-seven dollars to over two hundred dollars.” Jarvis informed him.

 

Harry was horrified. “They’re that much?!” He asked aghast.

 

He threw himself back against his pillows and groaned. He poked his protruding belly. “You are turning out to be very expensive.” He said as he prodded his belly some more. “I must have spent several hundred dollars on the stuff I already have…how much do prams cost Jarvis?”

 

“They have a very varied range according to what one wants.”

 

Harry sighed and rubbed his head. “When I was out shopping I fell in love with the Silver Cross complete pram and pushchair. The grey one.”

 

“The Silver Cross 3D complete pram and pushchair in metropolitan costs five hundred and forty-three dollars.”

 

Harry wailed exaggeratedly. “Oh this is definitely turning out more expensive than I thought! I had no idea how much all of this would cost me! It’ll end up being a year’s worth of wages before I’m done.”

 

Harry sat up again and checked his list.

 

“Jarvis, can you put in an order for me please?”

 

“Certainly, what did you need?”

 

“I want the cheapest bottle and steriliser set that’s still good quality and as natural as possible and I want that pram and pushchair combi, I feel better splurging on something I’m going to be using a lot and I want the baby to be comfortable when I take him or her for a walk. When can they be delivered?”

 

“They can be here as early as tomorrow, Harry.”

 

Harry grinned and thanked Jarvis before he rattled off his American bank account number for Jarvis to order for him.

 

“Thank you for your help, Jarvis!” Harry said happily after Jarvis confirmed that his orders had gone through.

 

“It was my pleasure, Harry.” The A.I. answered.

 

Harry put a diagonal line next to the pram and the steriliser set on his list to mark them as ordered, when they arrived he would put another diagonal line to make a cross to show that he had them.

 

“I’ve got those clothes coming from that online shop, I’ve got more of that disgusting scar paste coming and the pram and steriliser set. It’s going to be a busy day tomorrow, I better get some rest.”

 

Harry put his list on his bedside table and he lay down, very aware that it wasn’t night time yet. He hadn’t had his preheat week. It was late and he knew it was because his pregnancy was messing with his hormones, but after Clint had mated him it had taken only a month for him to slip into a preheat, now he’d gone five months without one, he was scared to do anything, just in case he did go onto a preheat. He had always been regular, perfectly on time, one week every three months. He wondered if it was his suppressant tablets that helped control his cycle, if they made his body stick to a strict schedule and now that he wasn’t taking those tablets for the health of his baby, his preheats were all over the place. He hated not knowing when his preheat was going to hit, he was a nervous wreck and as he curled up under his duvet, he wondered if tomorrow would be the day his preheat hit him.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

At six months pregnant there was not a lot that Harry could do. Or rather there wasn’t a lot the Avengers team would allow him to do.

The package from Saint Fiacre’s had come the day after his pram and steriliser set had arrived, three days after his attack in the park. Harry had spent three hours learning how to put up and fold down the pram and how to convert it into a pushchair, watched by the Avengers in equal parts intrigue and amusement, who he had come to realise were not going to leave him alone as he inched ever closer to seven months.

His belly was big, but still relatively small and manageable, not at all the cumbersome weight he had been expecting, but he was assured via another trip to the S.H.I.E.L.D med bay, escorted by Agent Phil Coulson, that his baby was absolutely fine and was a good weight, despite it not looking like it was.

His preheat had not hit him and the stress of that as well as his surging, build-up of hormones that were usually released with his preheat was making him an emotional wreck. He shouted, he screamed, he cried and then he threw things at people…large things.

He was having a rare quiet moment when Steve tentatively called everyone for lunch. The whole team were walking on egg shells around him, as a simple question or remark could mean they ended up being hit in the head with shoe or even a plate as Harry lashed out in pent up anger and frustration with the continued absence of his preheat whilst all the while his hormones were surging and building up and up within his body, throwing off every rational emotional response he had.

 

“He’s not staying here is he?” Tony asked when he swaggered into the kitchen. Harry hated his smarmy fucking face.

 

“Tony, stop it, now.” Steve ordered, shooting Harry a look that had anger surging through his blood and the muscle in his jaw popping out as he ground his teeth together.

 

“I never thought I’d be begging for any Omega to go onto a preheat, but here I am…he needs that damn preheat. He’s going to kill one of us.”

 

“Are you offering yourself up?” Harry hissed.

 

“See!” Tony said throwing an arm out to indicate Harry. “He’s always angry; he needs some serious stress release.”  

 

Harry breathed and dug his hand into Thor’s thigh, the only one brave enough to still sit by him. It had to be some weird Asgardian thing, but Thor just looked at him, patted his back and then carried on eating. It’s why Harry liked Thor more than anyone else at the moment and had done for the last few days.

 

“I don’t mind releasing some pent up stress with you.” Harry said breathing like a wounded hippo.

 

“Well you’re definitely gorgeous enough.” Tony said appraisingly. “There’s no way you can get pregnant either, so how about after lunch I take you to bed and see if we can’t calm you down with some serious release.”

 

“Tony!” Steve hissed, shoving Tony so hard he stumbled.

 

Harry blinked and then he laughed as he realised what he had set himself up for. He shook his head.

 

“If it is carnal release that you need, I would be honoured to take you to my bed.” Thor nodded even as he continued to eat.

 

Harry chuckled and started eating his own lunch. “That’s okay. I just really, really need this preheat to just start already. The hormones are going to drive me insane…or to murder. Whichever one comes first. Since I became mature enough to have them at nineteen, they’ve been every three months on the dot, I knew exactly when they would happen and I could plan for it, this random, messed up schedule where I don’t know when it’ll happen is so frustrating I think my head is going to explode. I think because I was taking the suppressant tablets, my preheat was tamed and pulled to a strict schedule and now that I can’t take them, this is the first time since I first matured enough to have heat periods that I haven’t been on those tablets and I think my preheat is rebelling.”

 

“Hence the fact you need a good, hard fucking to release those hormones.” Tony told him.

 

Harry shook his head. “That’s never going to happen. My first sexual encounter was more than enough for a lifetime.”

 

“How many times do I have to say I’m sorry?!” Clint shouted, standing up angrily.

 

“You’re never going to be able to say it enough to make up for what you did!” Harry shouted right back, feeding off of Clint’s anger, which built up his raging hormones again.

 

“So I have to sit here and listen as my pregnant Omega is propositioned by every other Alpha in this room, accepting such attentions without even trying to stop them, and do absolutely nothing?!”

 

Harry’s eyes flashed white hot and his small hands clenched tight.

 

“I’m not your Omega, Clint and I never will be, so get those thoughts right out of your head. If I wanted to sleep with all of them and more, there’s nothing you could do to stop me. I told you before to stop trying to lay claim to me. I’m not your anything and I can see now that unless I do something to force you to realise that, you’re never going to leave me alone.”

 

Harry walked around the table, ignoring Clint’s white washed face.

 

“What are you going to do?” He asked weakly, his body shaking in either horror or distress.

 

“I’m going to call the enforcers…I’ve decided it’ll be best if I did call in the Omega Protection Act, you’re not going to stop laying claim to me, even though I’ve told you several times to stop it, so I’m going to force you to stop.”

 

“No, you can’t! Please don’t!” Clint begged, trying to grab a hold of Harry, but Bruce held him back and whispered in his ear.

 

Harry hurried down to his bedroom and barricaded himself inside. He sat on his bed, covered his ears with his hands and he cried freely. He didn’t know what he was saying or what he was doing anymore. Everything was messed up and Clint always ruined everything by saying the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing, why couldn’t he have just backed off and left him alone like they’d agreed weeks ago? They had been doing so much better, they’d actually been getting on, but ever since that incident in the park, it had all gone downhill again and after today, Harry didn’t know if there was any way of going back. If he didn’t enforce the Omega Protection Act now that he’d said he was going to, then Clint was going to think he could get away with anything and everything and that Harry was just bluffing when he threatened to call the enforcers, but if he did go through with his threat and enforced the Omega Protection Act, then he could never take that back, his baby would never know who their Father was, only that they were an Alpha who had raped and violated their Mother. He felt sick all the way down his throat and deep into his stomach, he was caught now between a rock and a hard place, he had let his anger dictate his words and he couldn’t take them back. He had to leave; he had to get the hell out of this Tower before it was too late.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I know, I know. No need to tell me that I haven’t updated in some months. I’m working on levelling out my three WIP’s so that I can update them all in turn, so hopefully they’ll all be updated once a month in turn.
> 
> A massive note for all of you lovelies reading this fic, all chapters previous to this one have been re-written and there are a few things that have changed, but it was mostly editing out mistakes and smoothening things out, but there are some changes to take note of.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you lovelies enjoyed this chapter, Harry is now making his escape, he’s decided he has to get away, silly boy that he is, but he thinks it’s for the best, so he can’t be faulted for that, but it’ll get a little more interesting now in the next chapter,
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	15. Enacting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: A shout out to Chelsea, one of the Facebook fans, who’s celebrating her birthday today. Happy birthday, lovelie, I hope you enjoy the chapter.
> 
> Last Time
> 
> Harry hurried down to his bedroom and barricaded himself inside. He sat on his bed, covered his ears with his hands and he cried freely. He didn’t know what he was saying or what he was doing anymore. Everything was messed up and Clint always ruined everything by saying the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing, why couldn’t he have just backed off and left him alone like they’d agreed weeks ago? They had been doing so much better, they’d actually been getting on, but ever since that incident in the park, it had all gone downhill again and after today, Harry didn’t know if there was any way of going back. If he didn’t enforce the Omega Protection Act now that he’d said he was going to, then Clint was going to think he could get away with anything and everything and that Harry was just bluffing when he threatened to call the enforcers, but if he did go through with his threat and enforced the Omega Protection Act, then he could never take that back, his baby would never know who their Father was, only that they were an Alpha who had raped and violated their Mother. He felt sick all the way down his throat and deep into his stomach, he was caught now between a rock and a hard place, he had let his anger dictate his words and he couldn’t take them back. He had to leave; he had to get the hell out of this tower before it was too late.

Chapter Fifteen – Enacting

 

Harry refused to leave his room for the entire of the next day and night, which caused even more stress and concern over his mental health and his physical one too as he had missed four meals…dinner from the day before yesterday, breakfast, lunch and then dinner the next day and he was set to miss breakfast today as well.

He knew that he was acting irrationally. He knew he was, but he couldn’t help it, the feelings of oppression and suppression were tightening around him. He was told he wasn’t a prisoner, yet he wasn’t allowed to leave the Tower. He was told he was free to do as he pleased within the tower, and then he had his every move questioned, he was told when to eat, when to sleep, when to go and have a nap, he was fussed over, pushed around, dragged around, told what to do and then forbidden from leaving and going where he wanted. The lack of control, the lack of independence was grating on him and he felt like a dog called to heel.

He was being treated like an Omega before the new laws had been implemented, being locked up and ordered to do as he was told, the thought bought bile climbing up his throat. He wasn’t Harry anymore, he was just the Omega and that was what kept him locked in his bedroom. He couldn’t go out there again, he just couldn’t face it, knowing as he did that he was losing himself, his identity, to this unlawful treatment. He was going insane the longer he stayed in this tower, around these maddening people. He had to get out.

Bruce had tried to speak to him, even Pepper had tried, but Harry ignored them all and he spent his time between packing up the minimal stuff that he had actually taken from his bags, made sure his baby things were packed up and crying hysterically on his bed, ignoring his aching bladder which wanted some relief and his growling belly that wanted food. He couldn’t stay in here another full day, he knew that, he needed food and he seriously needed a piss now, but he really didn’t want to go outside the bedroom door.

The psychiatrist had been called and that made Harry cry harder as he really, really hated the psychiatrist and even Director Fury had banged hell out of his door, demanding that he opened it, but he still refused, even when his job at S.H.I.E.L.D was threatened, living like this wasn’t worth one job.

Phil Coulson was there next and he was the only person who Harry actually considered opening the door to, but then there was another voice, one that he didn’t know, someone who claimed to be an enforcer.

Harry bit his lip in indecision. If the enforcer thought he was being abused or unduly distressed by the people around him, then  he could arrest every single person in this tower, whether they were involved in any wrong doing or not. But then he had a thought, what if the man outside in the hallway wasn’t an enforcer at all? What if he was just an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D that he’d never met before who was pretending to be an enforcer just to get him to open the door? Surely no Alpha would ever think to call the enforcers on _themselves_! It was preposterous, this visit would mar them for the rest of their lives, three minor visits like this meant a serious mark on their personal records, three serious marks meant a court visit where they could be sentenced to imprisonment or even execution depending on their personal records and their crimes against Omegas.

 

“Please open the door; I just want to talk to you Harry.” The enforcer said calmly, his voice so soothing and inviting that Harry wanted to burrow into him and hide.

 

It was then that Harry knew that the man outside the door was a real enforcer, or at least it was more likely that he was a real enforcer as only they had the training to project their voices in such a way to distressed Omegas and it took them years of hard, dedicated study to learn how to do so.

Harry padded to the door and unbolted it slowly, half expecting several agents to burst through and prove that he had been tricked, but when he opened the door a crack and an unknown man slid in before closing the door again, Harry realised he was facing a real enforcer and he needed to tread very carefully to determine what happened next.

 

“Hello Harry, I’m Luke.” The enforcer introduced calmly.

 

Harry nodded and sunk down onto his little loveseat carefully, supporting his baby bulge.

 

“Do you know why I’ve been called?” Luke asked him.

 

“I think I know why, I’m just not sure who.” Harry said weakly.

 

“A Clinton Barton called us and he turned himself in, he’s been taken to an enforcer compound for questioning on his behaviour and his treatment of you.”

 

Harry felt light headed and he swayed lightly. Luke sat next to him and placed a large, sturdy hand on his shoulder to steady and comfort him.

 

“I’ve been told all about the circumstances, I’m the Captain of my team, so only I will know what has been said, but I would like to hear your version of what happened Harry, how you felt and how you saw what has happened.”

 

Harry couldn’t help burrowing into the mated Alpha, who smelt like chocolate spread, breast milk, playdough and a subtle cologne. Luke was not only mated, but he had more than one young child, his Beta mate was breast feeding and he was trying to cover those homey smells with cologne, but was unsuccessful when Harry was as close to him as he was.

 

“I don’t know what to think or feel anymore.” Harry admitted, trying to ignore the tears welling up in his eyes.

 

“My priority is you, Harry. You and the baby you carry. Those Alphas out there can say what they want, claim you need to be here for protection however much they like, but if I think you’re not safe here or anything other than completely happy, then you’re coming with me.”

 

Harry nodded and slowly, he told the enforcer Captain what had happened, from being kidnapped, to being mated without his express permission, to having to trick the Avengers into telling him he was pregnant, how Clint kept trying to lay claim to him and the baby and how he felt through everything that had happened and how he was still being targeted by the people who had kidnapped him, to his house being blown up and barely escaping with his life. Everything came pouring out of his mouth and Luke sat there and listened quietly and intently as Harry laid out everything that had happened in excruciating detail, holding very little back and saying exactly how he remembered feeling.

He felt utterly drained and thoroughly exhausted by the end of the tirade as he finished by telling Luke about what had happened the afternoon the day before yesterday at lunch, where he had been so angry because of his delayed preheat, how his hormones had built up so much he had violent mood swings and how he had exploded when Clint had once again laid claim to him and the baby and he had told him he was going to call the enforcers to invoke the Omega Protection Act.

 

“Were you serious about that?” Luke asked him softly once Harry remained silent.

 

“I don’t know.” Harry said. “If I don’t do it now then he’s going to think he can get away with laying claim to me and I’m just bluffing and I won’t do anything about it, but if I do, then my baby isn’t going to know their Father.”

 

“Is that something you wouldn’t want?” Luke asked.

 

“I don’t…I don’t want my baby to think that they’re the result of rape. I don’t want to burden my baby with that when I’m not even sure if it was rape in the first place, it was definitely dubious consent, but it wasn’t outright rape. I could have easily been begging Clint to…to do what he did, but it was while I was on a heat period and I would have begged anyone who had entered that room to do the same, even the men who had been torturing me continuously for three weeks. I don’t know what to do.”

 

Luke cuddled him and Harry absorbed that comfort like a dry sponge. He felt affection starved and drained and sick and a thousand other emotions, all of them negative and overwhelming.

 

“What you’ve told me, Harry, does not make me confident in the ability these Alphas have to look after you.” Luke told him. “In fact it sounds like they’ve been distressing you at least once daily for the last several months. I do not like that, these Alphas seem like they have no clue how to act around you, what to say to or around you or how to look after you.”

 

“I don’t need looking after!” Harry snapped angrily, his out of control emotions inciting his anger quicker than a striking viper.

 

“That’s not what I meant, of course you don’t need to be led around by the hand, you aren’t a child, I know, but you said the one Alpha actually _ran_ from you when you were on a preheat before? That’s unduly distressing, embarrassing and humiliating for you, that isn’t caring for you as a person. You are more than just an Omega Harry, you’re a person too.”

 

Harry frowned. “That’s just who Tony is, he’s scared of Omegas because he’s afraid they’ll sue him or something.”

 

“He needs to grow up and realise that not every Omega is going to leap on him in a bid to get pregnant for his money.”

 

“Tony isn’t…he’s a genius, but he’s not the most sensible person in the world. He’s locked up in his own little bubble world and I care for him and he does care for me, just when I’m not on a preheat. The feelings it gives him, that lack of control, it frightens him, I think it frightens them all and they don’t know what to do.”

 

“Do you feel safe around them?” Luke asked him seriously.

 

“I feel safe around Bruce and Tony, Thor and Steve have always been nothing but protective towards me and Pepper is amazing. Agent Coulson treats me exactly same whether I’m on my preheat or not and he protects me whenever he takes me for my scans…it’s just…”

 

“The other two, the Alpha Clint who put you in this condition and the Beta Natasha, what about them, how do they make you feel?”

 

Harry sighed and run a hand through his hair agitatedly. “Natasha makes me so mad, she tries, god knows she tries hard, she just does not understand anything, it’s like she’s made of solid ice and emotions are these weird, foreign oddities to her that she just cannot understand and Omegas are these creepy, emotional peculiarities that she’s suddenly been forced into close contact with. She watches me like a favourite TV show, I can almost see her wondering what entertainment I’ll provide next and I hate feeling like I’m some sideshow freak to her, something to be watched and laughed at as I go through different emotions or stages of pregnancy.” Harry said honestly, saying things he’d kept bottled up for months now.

 

“And Clint?” Luke encouraged mildly.

 

“Clint, he tries too hard to the point where he makes me tense just when he enters the same room as me. He’s always pushing, there is always something he wants, we had a talk a few weeks ago and I made him realise what he was doing and what needed to change and what needed to happen and everything got better after that talk we had. I thought then that there was a chance, a slim chance, but there was some sort of potential there that this could actually work out, that I could raise my baby with him, even if we never bonded or even mated ever again. I could handle that for the sake of my baby, then that incident with the shooter in the park happened and he went overboard again, he started pushing harder and pulling me to do this and that, continuously watching me and analysing everything I did, every emotion I had and then my preheat didn’t come and my hormones haven’t had any sort of release in months now and I can’t take it anymore. I understand that he’s protective of me, I’m carrying his baby and that’s bound to cause some extreme emotions in him, especially as I was almost blown up and then almost shot, but it’s like he has absolutely no rational thought, like all higher brain function just switches off and he slips back into his primitive state where he thinks he’s king and can do as he pleases with me with no repercussions or any thought to what I want.”

 

Luke smiled softly and Harry couldn’t help smiling back a bit.

 

“Clint seems to have some possession dilemmas. He believes that you’re his, you and the baby, despite not being bonded together and if you do something that he doesn’t like, say teasing his Alpha friends about having sex with them, he lashes out and tries to make you see that you’re his like he sees it. This is a common occurrence, where an Alpha lays claim to an Omega who just doesn’t want to be near them or have anything to do with them. These Alphas do then turn to negative behaviour such as stalking, harassment, sexual harassment, physical violence against other Alphas or Betas who have touched ‘their’ Omega and in some cases, rape that they see as perfectly fine and consensual because they’re just mating to ‘their’ Omega. So this behaviour needs to be stopped, you obviously don’t want to be bonded to Clint at this moment in time.”

 

Harry shook his head hard.

 

“Yet Clint sees you as his pregnant Omega. This could turn into a dangerous situation if not nipped in the bud, so I’m glad that he turned himself over to us and brought this to our attention.”

 

“What are you going to do to him?” Harry asked a little nervously.

 

“We’re going to make him see that what he’s doing to you, how he’s treating you and how he’s behaving is not acceptable. We’re going to get him to see things from your point of view, how you see everything he’s doing. We have one special project enforcer, Burne, he’s nearly seven feet and twenty stone of utter brawn, we’ll see how Clint likes being Burne’s Omega for a week or two, how he likes having Burne lay claim to him if he so much as speaks to anyone else, how he likes having Burne pull him around and push at him to do as he wants.”

 

Harry couldn’t stop the laugh that tumbled from his mouth.

 

“Burne gets very high success results.” Luke said with a nod and a grin.

 

“Am I staying here?” Harry asked after a silent pause.

 

“You tell me, Harry.” Luke said with a nod to his packed bags. “Do you have anywhere else you can go?”

 

Harry smiled sadly. “With how I felt last night, I just wanted to run and never look back, I’ve calmed down a bit since then.”

 

“What do you want to do Harry? If you’re worried about not having anywhere to stay, you can come home with me, my Wife would love you, or I could get you into an emergency Omega housing facility where absolutely no Alphas are allowed in the building.”

 

“I have a new house; I bought it recently, I’m happy to go there.” Harry said.

 

“Would you feel safe on your own?” Luke asked him seriously.

 

Harry nodded. “I’ve been looking after myself for years, I’ve been fine for years and I knew how to care for myself and how to look after myself long before the Avengers got involved, in fact it seems like my life was a lot less complicated before they came onto the scene too.”

 

“You are in a delicate condition at the moment Harry.” Luke said gently.

 

Harry laid a hand on his belly. “I know, but I am an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D still, I know hand to hand, which I can still do while pregnant as I told you and I still have a gun and I know how to shoot. I won’t be completely helpless.”

 

Luke nodded. “I’ll escort you to your new home then on my way back to the office. This is my number, put it on your speed dial, the minute you call me and tell me you need me, I’ll send an immediate response team to your home, which I’ll have flagged for emergency response by specially trained enforcers.”

 

Harry smiled at that. “Thank you.”

 

Luke squeezed his shoulders. “Get what you need, you will let me carry the heavier things, and I’ll get you to your home and out of this tower.”

 

Harry had a fight on his hands; or rather Luke did as he, and the two other enforcers that were with him, argued with Fury and the Avengers over Harry leaving the tower.

 

“Is this really what you want Harry?” Agent Coulson asked him calmly and gently.

 

“You do not hound any Omega under our protection!” One enforcer growled strongly, stepping between Harry and Phil.

 

“This is what I want.” Harry answered regardless. “I can’t stay here, I’m going to end up killing one of them from the stress and it’s not good for the baby. I have to leave for all our sakes.”

 

“You’re still being targeted.” Steve fretted, wringing his hands together.

 

“We will protect Harry now.” Luke said sternly as he lifted two of Harry’s bags and the other enforcer picked up the new pram.

 

“You don’t know what you’re dealing with; he is an agent of my agency and we can…” Fury stated angrily, but Luke cut him off.

 

“Then perhaps you need to train your Alpha agents how to avoid violating and impregnating your Omega agents! This is unacceptable Director Fury, regardless of the extenuating circumstances, it should never have happened.”

 

“On that we agree.” Fury said. “But to take him from where he is protected…”

 

“We are taking him away from the Alpha who violated and impregnated him!” Luke cut in harshly. “You have forced Harry to live with his attacker, no matter how repentant, when Harry was not only confused and distressed, but hounded by that very same Alpha! You let Harry get into such an emotional state that the only outlet he could find was exploding into rage, which put his health and his baby’s health at risk, we will not allow this to happen again, so we are removing Harry from this tower and placing him into enforcer protection, if any of you go near him without his express permission, you will be arrested and held at our compound, if you continue after that, we will press charges.”

 

Harry was in the back of a car before fifteen minutes had passed and he felt awful for leaving the Avengers and the tower, but he had been planning to do it for a while and this way he didn’t even have to drug anyone. He happily gave directions to his new house to Luke, who was driving, but he veered off course and stopped at a drive through fast food place first after hearing Harry’s belly growling and he wouldn’t leave the bay until Harry had ordered a large, greasy meal that he completely demolished in the car before they even reached the street he lived on.

Luke dropped him off at his new home, settled him in, scoped everything out and then let him watch as he used a tablet to flag his house for the response teams, if Harry phoned Luke or if he phoned the emergency number, both of which Luke had programmed into his speed dial of the new Starkphone that Tony had given him to replace the one he’d lost in the explosion, the response team could be here in under ten minutes.

Harry was confident that he could hold off an attacker for ten minutes, especially now that he didn’t have Jarvis constantly watching and monitoring him or a tower wired up with more technology than most modern hospitals, he could easily use magic, though his attackers from the tower were still adamant that Harry had attacked them with coloured lights that had the force of a wrecking ball behind it, so maybe he would be better off using his S.H.I.E.L.D issue gun and just shooting the bastards.

 

“Harry, dude, if you need anything, just call me.” Ollie-Jay, one of the enforcers, told him as he pulled him into a hug. “I put my number in your phone, I don’t care if it’s five in the morning, if I’m on duty or not, you want to talk, you call me.”

 

Harry grinned. “Thanks Ollie.”

 

“No problem dude, you remember we’re here for you.”

 

Harry nodded and then he was alone in a newly built, newly furnished house. The first thing he did was check for explosives with a sweep of his wand. It was unlikely, especially after the three enforcers had checked the entire house for him, but after the last time, he was taking absolutely no chances.

He warded it up tighter than a vestal virgin’s legs and only allowed himself, Luke, Ollie-Jay and the other enforcer Brent, the Avengers minus Natasha and Clint, as well as Agent Coulson and Fury access to his home and then he sealed the wards shut, scanned again for any weak links or anything odd, before he finally relaxed and started setting up what would be his new home, colouring the white walls and white carpets to his preferences and using one of the spare bedrooms, the one closest to the Master bedroom that he would be using, to set up what he had so far for his nursery.

He was glad that his new house was furnished, no matter how sparsely, but it had beds, it had dressers, it had a working, but empty, fridge freezer, a washing machine, a kitchen table with four chairs and numerous empty bookshelves and cupboards.

Harry removed the one bed from the room he’d chosen as the nursery and shrunk it down and put it into one of the other spare bedrooms before he made a note in the notebook that Tony had given to him, that listed down all his baby stuff, to call the place that was holding his nursery set to give them the address so they could deliver the set to him here.

He went to bed happy and relaxed, knowing he could sleep for as long as he damn well liked without waking up to a fretful interrogation the next day. He would miss Steve, but not the flapping mother henning.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X 

 

Harry had everything he needed set up during the next week and a half, his nursery was perfect and the nursery set he’d picked out was stunning. He loved it. He must have washed the sheet and duvet set he’d bought for it several times already, just so he could handle it and sniff it and make up the cot again and again.

He’d called Bruce twice just to talk and to let him know that he was fine and happy and that he wasn’t stressed at all anymore.

Clint had been released by the enforcers, Luke had called him up before they’d done it to tell him and Harry was happy to say that he was fine with Clint being released. Bruce had told him that Clint was in a much better way and wasn’t demanding anything from him, despite knowing that Harry had called Bruce and that he had Harry’s phone number.

He didn’t know how to feel about that, but he did wish he’d been there to see the huge enforcer Burne toting Clint around like a possession, laying claim to him and telling him what to do, he knew Clint would not have liked it at all and he hoped that it had opened his eyes to how he acted and how he treated Omegas, it was unacceptable and Harry had broken under such treatment, which is why he’d been removed by the enforcers.

Given over a week alone, the change in his mood, emotions and behaviour was unbelievable, his stress levels had plummeted and he’d started his preheat just a day after arriving at his new home, which he was happy to ride out alone in his house after ordering a food shop to be delivered to his home and stressing that the person delivering it had to either be a Beta or mated.

The elderly, jovial, mated Beta had been incredibly happy to help him put away his shopping after explaining that his Beta mate of thirty years would string him up if he let Harry put away the boxes by himself, pregnant as he was.

So with stocked cupboards and fridge, his nursery set up and no stresses or anyone to get angry at, Harry found himself with endless time to just sit and think and relax. He thought about anything and everything, he prodded his brain to remember more and more of his captivity, assured that a wailing siren would sound if anyone at all crossed the boundaries to his house.

His neighbours were kind and always happy to see him, the house on the left had a couple with two young children and the one on the right were a lovely couple who were expecting, what made Harry have a connection to the latter couple more was that they were both males and Harry invited Sean, another pregnant Omega, around often for tea, for snacks, for a chat and after realising that Harry was heavily pregnant and all on his own, Sean’s Alpha, Joe, visited more too and promised to keep an eye on him, just in case he went into premature labour, a major fear of his as he hovered around Sean, who was five months pregnant with their first baby and had a history in his family of labour before the seventh month, which often resulted in the death of the baby. Sean only had one living older sister, but he had six dead brothers and four dead sisters, all having been stillborn or died in infancy after his Mother had gone in premature labour. Joe was majorly stressing over Sean doing too much, moving too much in one day or doing anything that could cause him to go into premature labour.

 

“We found out today that we’re having a girl.” Sean said proudly as he sipped at the tea Harry had made for him, he’d come straight to Harry’s just twenty minutes after he’d arrived back from the hospital. “Of course Joe is happy just to know that she’s healthy and growing well, but I think he was holding out hope for a boy.”

 

“I didn’t want to know what I was having. I still don’t.” Harry said softly. “It…it’s hard enough knowing I’m going to be a single parent, having a boy…I don’t know what I’d do if I had a boy and he was an Alpha.”

 

“You’d do fine.” Sean told him sternly. “Not only would he be your baby, but you’d raise him to be kind and respectful, I’m sure.”

 

Harry nodded, but he was still worried inside about having an Alpha. If he had a baby girl, that would solve all of his problems and dash all of his fears, but his biggest fear of all, even bigger than having an Alpha, was if he gave birth to an Omega like himself. He never wanted a baby of his to be treated how he had been through his life, to experience what he had, being violated and mated as he hung from the ceiling after weeks of torture only to end up pregnant from it. The thought made him feel physically sick.

 

“Earth to Harry, are you okay?” Sean asked.

 

Harry blinked and he nodded. “Yeah, I’m meeting the baby’s Father for the first time since he was locked up by the enforcers later and I’m just worried over how it’s going to go.”  

 

“You’ll be fine. Joe and I are home all night, if we hear anything, he’ll be right round and I’ll call the enforcers.”

 

Harry laughed. “The others are coming too; I won’t be alone with him.”

 

“Still, any shouting, banging, screaming or eerie silences and Joe will be around because I won’t be able to sleep otherwise.”

 

“I thought that was because the baby Princess you’re having sleeps on your bladder.”

 

Sean grinned and laid a hand over his belly. “That she does, if she’s not kicking my spine, but that’s besides the point, I will be awake and I’ll be listening.”

 

“Thank you.” Harry said softly, unused to having people looking out for him as a person, but enjoying the feeling all the same.

 

Joe came in through the back door, as Harry had told him he was allowed to do whenever he wanted if Sean was in his house and he snuggled Harry and blew a raspberry on his neck, much to his protest and chagrin, before he went and scooped Sean up and snogged him, his hands all over the belly that housed his unborn daughter.

 

“My Mother is coming over in half an hour to see you.” Joe told Sean, who groaned exaggeratedly.

 

“If she tries to give me another five-a-day chart I’m going to hit her with it.” Sean swore seriously.

 

“Deal.” Joe agreed happily. “It’s nice to see you looking well Harry, enjoy your night, we’ll keep an eye on things later, when your guests arrive, so don’t you go worrying.”

 

“I won’t, thank you Joe.” Harry said with a grin as Joe dragged his Omega out the back door and supported him down the single step onto the snowy lawn, Sean rolling his eyes as he did so and giving Harry a jaunty wave through the glass.

 

“Insane, the both of them.” Harry declared to himself before he put the two cups into the sink and set to cleaning up his house for the arrival of his guests.

 

He was both dreading and anticipating Clint’s arrival; he had added him and Natasha to the wards for tonight’s visit, but he wanted to see if Clint was any better for his stay with the enforcers, but he just didn’t want to see Clint again. He’d been so much better, slowly coming to terms with what had happened and what his life was going to be now thanks to Clint’s botched rescue attempt.

He placed a soothing hand over his seven month pregnant bump. It was January now and after hiding away from everyone for Christmas, Harry was glad that that season was over and done with. He hadn’t celebrated Christmas for three years now, all through his S.H.I.E.L.D employment no one had so much as wished him a Happy Christmas, why would that change now just because one of the Avengers knocked him up on a rescue mission?

Sprucing up his living room with a simple wave of his wand, Harry felt the familiar flare of warmth rush through his body as he used his magic and he embraced that feeling wholeheartedly, he loved his magic and not being able to use it for so long had left him feeling slightly bereft.

The tentative knock to his front door had Harry sucking in a huge breath and holding it for a moment before exhaling to calm himself. He took one last look around and nodded. There were no magic books about, none of his photos were moving and his wand was back in its holster, he was good to go.

He opened the front door and smiled at the awkward looking group of men, and two women, on his doorstep.

 

“How do you live in this pokey place?” Tony greeted him.

 

“Tony!” Pepper snapped. “Don’t be so rude.”

 

Harry just grinned. “Just get inside before my neighbours see you and think the circus is in town.”

 

“I definitely haven’t missed your cheek.” Tony said as he walked past him, ruffling Harry’s hair as he did so.

 

Harry glared at his back, closed the front door and followed the Avengers into the living room.

 

“Sit down; let me get you tea and coffee.” Harry said.

 

“You look really well.” Bruce told him with a friendly smile.

 

“I feel amazing.” Harry said. “No offense, but without you lot around I can actually walk around in my boxers and scratch my balls without worrying about if any of you are analysing me and my mental state.”

 

Tony laughed, Pepper scowled at him and Steve blushed to the roots of his hair. Harry chuckled at them all.

 

“I was joking.” He assured them. “It’s very rarely that I walk around in my boxers. I’ve had delivery men coming left and right every day.”

 

That set Tony off again and Harry grinned as he served them all tea and coffee how he remembered how they liked them.

 

“What have you had delivered?” Steve asked, not prying, just trying to make conversation, so Harry didn’t swell up with indignant rage like he would have if he’d still been living in the tower.

 

“The nursery furniture for upstairs, I paid them extra to set it up for me, I had food delivered because I finally had my preheat last week and I didn’t want to go out, I got a new bloody mattress because the one I had already was hideous despite it being brand new and a few parcels of clothes for the baby. Oh and more prenatal vitamins, I was running low.”

 

“Thank fuck you had that preheat.” Tony snarked.

 

Harry rolled his eyes. “I really, really needed it. As soon as that passed everything just calmed down and guess what? No more murderous rages.”

 

“Did you find out why it came so late?” Pepper asked him softly, with an inflection of honest concern.

 

“Yep, I Googled it and apparently severe stress can delay a preheat period, I eliminated the stress and I went on to my preheat and I’ve never felt better.”

 

“How is the baby?” Steve asked with a smiling glace to his swollen belly hidden behind a jumper.

 

“Fine. She’s growing well and honestly bouncing around like a bloody jackrabbit at the moment.”

 

“Wait…she?” Clint asked, speaking up for once instead of just staring at him.

 

Harry blinked. “Ah.”

 

“You went to get a scan outside of S.H.I.E.L.D and found out the gender?” Bruce asked.

 

Harry shook his head. “No. I was thinking on if I wanted a girl or a boy earlier and my neighbour found out today that he’s having a baby girl, so I just said she without meaning to, I still don’t know the real gender.”

 

“Is that why you smell like another Alpha?” Clint asked.

 

At once all the Avengers turned to glare at him and Harry frowned.

 

“My neighbours are a mated couple, Clint. Sean and Joe, I’ve come to be friends with them and Joe sometimes treats me like a kid brother. He blew a raspberry on my neck because he knows I don’t like it when he came to get his five month pregnant mate from my kitchen where Sean was telling me he’d found out that he was having a baby girl. It was nothing and you have absolutely no reason to ask.”

 

“I was just concerned.” Clint told him.

 

“Keep it that way.” Harry said before turning to Pepper. “How is work Pepper?”

 

“It would be a lot better if Tony would get on those designs I need to unveil in just three months for the release of the clean energy converter in New York, but other than that and a few competitors who think they can mess with me, everything is laying low.”

 

“But Pep, the suit upgrade is almost finished!” Tony pouted.

 

Harry grinned. This is what he’d been hoping for when the Avengers came around. Resting on Thor’s warm bulk, listening to Tony try to plead his case to a business headed Pepper as he had a cup of tea in his hands and a plate of biscuits within reach. This is how it should have been from the start; it shouldn’t have taken seven months and the intervention of the enforcers to get things like this, all that stress could have been prevented if only the Avengers had known how to behave and interact with him from the beginning.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: There’s not really much to say this time around, but everything is falling into place now and the plans I made for this plot are now coming into line, so I’m very happy with it at the moment. 
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed this chapter lovelies, everything is settling down, Harry’s better and Clint has been taken to hand, I can start the end game now and start implementing the final stages of the fic and then the big finish, I’m still aiming for 20 chapters, if it goes over it won’t be by much, 22 maybe, but under 25, so we are coming to the final end of the fic, let me know what you thought and I’ll see you soon,
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	16. Amends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last Time
> 
> Harry grinned. This is what he’d been hoping for when the Avengers came around. Resting on Thor’s warm bulk, listening to Tony try to plead his case to a business headed Pepper as he had a cup of tea in his hands and a plate of biscuits within reach. This is how it should have been from the start; it shouldn’t have taken seven months and the intervention of the enforcers to get things like this, all that stress could have been prevented if only the Avengers had known how to behave and interact with him from the beginning.

Chapter Sixteen – Amends

 

Harry saw a lot of the Avengers over the next week, particularly Clint. He wasn’t too worried about that, Clint was behaving impeccably well and had regaled him with stories of his ‘horror’ of meeting Burne, who had indeed opened his eyes to how he was acting and treating Harry.

Being lugged around by Burne and being claimed continuously as ‘his’ had truly opened Clint’s eyes and he was now trying to say that every Alpha needed to go and be subjected to Burne’s special brand of treatment.

Harry had called Luke, who was on duty with Ollie-Jay, after Clint had gone and laughed about it for an hour, praising Burne and them for coming up with such an amazing way to re-educate Alphas over the treatment of Omegas.

He then phoned Bruce for a half an hour chat, texted Sean and then he hopped into the bath for a relaxing soak. It was wonderful not being disturbed from his bathing by a worried Steve who thought he’d been in the bath for too long and was worried that he’d drowned or slipped or fallen over and knocked himself unconscious or something, or being disturbed by Thor kicking the door off of its hinges because he needed to use the bathroom and didn’t understand that if the door was locked then someone else was already using the bathroom. Thor had seen him naked more times than anyone else in the Tower, except perhaps Jarvis, but he wasn’t exactly a person even if he was intelligent enough to hold a conversation with.

It wasn’t any wonder why most male Omegas went into labour at only seven months gestation and didn’t carry to a full nine months; he thought he was lucky to have even made it to seven months at all living with the Avengers.

Harry climbed out of the bath, holding onto the sink as he did so, he dried himself off and climbed into his bed and snuggled down with a baby book. He was back to being confused over Clint. Like he had been a few weeks before, with how he was right now, Harry could easily see himself with Clint raising their baby together, but he was leery now, how long would this new behaviour adjustment last?

Groaning, Harry threw his head back as his gut tightened. Lately, whenever he thought about Clint, he got hard. He hated it and it was confusing him more and he didn’t know if it was because he knew he was pregnant with the Alpha’s baby, or if it was the man himself, but lately, every thought of Clint had him furiously masturbating to mental images of the Alpha. He was so confused now that it got to the point where he kept wanting to ask the man to stay with him, to not go back to the tower after he visited.

Going to sleep after he’d cleaned up the mess he’d made, Harry’s thoughts were going a mile a minute. He didn’t know what he wanted anymore and he didn’t know what to do for the best. He wanted Clint, but he didn’t want to want him and he was so utterly confused with it all that he wanted to scream with it.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Things got even worse when Clint asked him out on an actual date. Harry had been tempted to just say no, but in the end he had decided to give Clint one last chance, a chance he didn’t deserve and hadn’t earned, but Harry did it anyway, maybe if Clint messed this up then he’d stop thinking about him so much and with such a positive light.

Sitting in a car with Clint, in a confined space where they were forced to be near one another, almost touching in fact, and then sitting in a quiet restaurant at a small, square table was absolutely maddening. At least he wasn’t on a preheat, he counted that as a blessing as the strained, deathly awkward silence stretched on and on between them until Harry was ducking his head and playing his hands over his own pregnant belly. His baby was moving softly and kicking as if feeding from his uncomfortable awkwardness.

 

“Come here.” Harry said quietly in the hushed setting of the restaurant.

 

“What do you need? Are you okay?” Clint asked, even though he was already half way around the table. He was strung tighter than his bow and he had reacted the moment Harry had opened his mouth.

 

“Just come here.” Harry said as he rolled his eyes.

 

Harry took Clint’s large, callused hand in his and slipped it under his shirt and onto his relatively small bump.

 

“What…”

 

“Wait.” Harry said when Clint’s eyebrows drew together in confusion and another moment more and the baby within him gave a sudden kick to Clint’s hand and he drew back in surprise.

 

“Is that…?”

 

Harry nodded. “The baby has been kicking for a while; I thought you’d like to feel it this time.”

 

Clint just nodded as he held his warm palm curved over Harry’s belly, feeling intently every movement he could feel his baby making…Harry’s baby, he corrected with a hard swallow of sadness and a mental flash back to the Alpha Burne clamping a huge hand on the back of his neck and steering him around instead of just letting him walk.

He’d hated it. He’d hated every second that he’d spent with the enforcers, Burne in particular, who’d made him feel so small and insignificant, who had verbally claimed him, spoke over him when he was talking, literally tugged and pulled him after him like a dog on a leash, clamped that fucking hand around the back of his neck to steer his steps.

If that was how he had been treating Harry these last six months then he didn’t deserve to even know him, let alone have this chance to make it up to him, but the invitation to dinner had come out before he’d even really thought the idea through properly and then he’d been expecting the mug in Harry’s hands to come flying at his head in furious rejection, but when Harry had calmly agreed, he has seized the offering and ran with it, scheduling a date for the next night, before Harry could change his mind. Not that he’d have blamed Harry if he had changed his mind, he would have more than understood, he had actually been expecting a phone call all the next day as the scheduled date time approached closer and closer, but the rejection call hadn’t come and instead he had agonised over what to wear, where to take Harry, what to say, how to act until he was completely exhausted, mentally and physically.

He still didn’t know what to say, he didn’t know what Harry wanted to hear or what he wanted to talk about and he became painfully aware, as he and Harry sat in uncomfortable, mood killing silence, that he knew absolutely nothing about this young man who was sitting opposite him.

If anything was to change about their situation, about their feelings towards one another and their relationship, then Clint needed to make an effort to get to know Harry, but he didn’t think questioning him or asking him how he was feeling was going to go over too well, especially after the way Harry had acted after being asked that question several times a day from Steve when he was still living in the tower with them.

He had just been about to ask Harry how he was settling into his new home, sticking with something safe and hoping to convey that he didn’t mind Harry having his own space when Harry had asked him over to his side of the table and then placed his hand on that gently curving belly as he crouched next to him on his haunches.

Holding the warmth of the place where he knew his baby was growing made it very difficult to pull his hand back; he didn’t want to pull his hand away from that soft, soft skin, the curve of Harry’s pregnant belly that was incubating his baby. He wanted to bend his head down and kiss where his hand was lying, but he breathed in deeply and pulled his mind back from such thoughts, Harry had trusted him enough to lay his hand over his belly, he wouldn’t break that small show of trust by taking more than what was offered to him, just being able to touch Harry, to feel his baby move, was enough…for now at least.

 

“Has the baby been well?” He asked as he forced himself to pull back from that swollen belly and sit back in his chair opposite Harry, safely with a solid table between them.

 

Harry nodded and he happily dived in about telling him the latest food he craved for the baby, how he’d been woken up at four in the morning only to dash to the bathroom because the baby had kicked his bladder…he should have been there, he should have been involved, he should have been lying next to Harry in the bed and woken when he had and they could have shared a tired laugh over the dash to the bathroom before cuddling back up together, he could see himself spooning Harry from behind, his arms wrapped around him, his hands splayed over the baby belly as Harry slept in his arms with his back pressed to Clint’s chest.  

He clenched his hands together, wanting, longing, but angry with himself for such thoughts. It was a dream, a mere fantasy that was never going to become a reality, he was lucky Harry was even talking to him, that he was still allowing him into their baby’s life even after everything that had been said and done. He needed to be grateful for that, not bitch and moan because of what Harry wasn’t going to ever give him. The enforcers had truly laid that out for him in black and white.

Their food came quickly after that, the awkward silence was broken by Harry’s genuine enthusiasm and desire to talk about his baby, listing the new things he’d bought, promising to take him up to see the nursery he had finished decorating the other day and to see the adorable little wardrobe that Harry had bought to hang up cute little outfits on tiny clothes hangers.

He should have been there to help Harry set everything up; they should have been buying clothes together and decorating the nursery together. He bit his tongue until he tasted blood. Perhaps this had been a bad idea after all; maybe he needed another session with Burne.

That helped pull him back and he replied to Harry softly and kept back his true desires to just hold Harry and kiss him and lay his hands all over the belly that housed their growing child. It was difficult, but he prided himself on being in control of himself. He was an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D, he was a team member of the Avengers, he had control, he had a brain and he could ignore his baser instincts if he wished to and he did want to, if that was what opened the door into Harry’s life, into a his child’s life, then that is what he’d do. He’d try as hard as he could this time, he try harder than hard and this time, he would not give in to his instincts, he would not do anything to make Harry regret having him in their child’s life. He _would_ control himself.

Harry was very relaxed during dessert and coffee, which he had begrudgingly ordered decaffeinated.

 

“At least it’s still coffee.” Clint teased.

 

Harry scowled back at him. “It’s not the same. It tastes different and I like the taste of coffee, or rather I’ve drunk so much in the past that I’ve tricked myself into liking it.” Harry said with a grin. “I wouldn’t water my plants with this swill.”

 

“I’d hope not, I don’t think the plants would appreciate it.”

 

Harry grinned happily at him and Clint felt his heart soar at seeing it. He liked making Harry happy, he liked seeing him smiling and hearing him laugh and knowing that he’d been the cause. He didn’t want Harry to shy away from him, to back away or to cower from him, he wanted this relaxed, happy Harry, not the tense, afraid young man that kept coming out when Clint did something stupid or startled him like he had when he’d tried to kiss him. He regretted that now in hindsight, he should have waited, moved slower…much, much slower.

 

“I’ve had a really nice time, Clint.” Harry said as the big blond dropped him off at his new home.

 

“I did too.” Clint said with a soft smile.

 

“Do you want to come in?” Harry offered.

 

Clint’s heart went into his throat; he was shocked so stupid at that offer, that Harry had even thought to invite him in, that he was stunned into complete silence and stillness. He wanted that very much, he ached to take up Harry’s invitation, but Burne’s lessons rang through his head, dampening his arousal and shoving it back. He couldn’t move too fast, he couldn’t let his desires run rampant; he had to slow things down.

 

“No.” He said, shaking his head. “I’d love to, but I don’t want to tempt myself, you’re too tempting, too desirable. If you want to make anything…anything of us, I want to slow things right down.”

 

Harry looked surprised, but he smiled and chuckled. He nodded his head. “Okay, we’ll see what comes of this, but if we’re doing this slowly, Clint, we go slow, as in slower than the snail, slow.”

 

Clint chuckled and he bent forward and pressed a kiss to Harry’s smooth cheek. He pulled back after the chaste kiss to see the shocked, light blush to Harry’s cheeks and he had to clench his body tight to stop himself from sweeping Harry up into his arms and kissing him with all the desire and passion he felt thrumming through his body.

 

“I’ll call you tomorrow.” Clint promised as he gave Harry a last appreciative once over, a confident smile that he wasn’t actually feeling and he forced himself to leave down Harry’s path, to his car and he forced himself to drive away after he watched Harry shut his front door.

 

He couldn’t keep the utterly ridiculous, goofy smile from his face and he almost wrapped himself around a tree thinking about Harry’s soft cheek under his lips. He’d give anything and everything to kiss every single millimetre of Harry’s body. His hands clenched on the steering wheel of the car he’d borrowed form Tony; it was going to be a very long night.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry berated himself harshly as he thumped his head against the closed door. He was acting like a desperate slut and he’d seen the reaction his thoughtless invitation had caused. Clint had been horrified that he had invited him inside on what was their first date, despite the fact that they’d known one another and been living together, for six months, it had been a first date and everyone knew that only sluts and whores invited their dates into the house after a first date.

 

“Stupid, stupid, stupid!” Harry hissed at himself, smacking his head back against the door.

 

The night hadn’t gone as Harry had thought, well…it had in the beginning, the unbreakable silence, the awkward shifting and the uncomfortable situation, but that had changed the minute the ice had been broken.

Harry had enjoyed his night out, he had spent the day leading up to the ‘date’ thinking of all the terrible things that could go wrong, of all the ways Clint could mess up, which he’d been half hoping for, because now he was back to being utterly confused about everything and he wanted Clint desperately enough to invite him inside what had become his private, personal sanctuary away from everyone else.

Everything was so much easier when he could hate Clint, when he could lay all the blame at his feet and wrap himself up in indignant anger, but with Clint being so well behaved and thoughtful, pulling back so he wasn’t always invading his personal space or demanding anything and everything from him, not staring at him or analysing his every move, the arousal Harry felt for him flared and he’d been semi-erect for half of the night, which had led to him inviting the man into his home, for what even Harry didn’t know, he didn’t know why he’d done it or even for what purpose, he hadn’t thought things through at all, but with his spiking arousal for Clint, it would have likely ended up in the bedroom if he’d had his way and that thought scared him a little.

But Clint had stepped back from the dangerous situation, he had said no and then he had kissed him. Harry’s cheek was still tingling, he was hyper aware of what had happened and the feel of Clint’s lips pressing into his cheek was burnt into his memory and then Clint had been gone and all sense had returned to him and he had dived into the house and locked the door tight.

Tugging a hand through his hair, Harry walked down the hallway and went into the kitchen and set to boiling the kettle, he needed a cup of tea to calm his nerves and he needed it now.

He absently took out his wand and scanned the house to reveal that nothing was amiss and everything was how he had left it and he sagged in utter relief. He wasn’t exactly expecting to come home to find a gang of men waiting to kill him every time he walked through the front door, but it was a fear, a small niggle of doubt that was always on his mind and he had to take care with his baby. Irrational it might be, but if it meant keeping his baby safe, he’d do it every single day for the rest of his life.

His phone beeped and Harry walked to where he’d left it on charge with a calming cup of tea in his hands. He picked the phone up one handed and pushed the buttons to pull up the text message.

 

‘Was that the baby’s Father? Damn Harry, how could you have just let him leave like that? I’d have had him in the house and straight into the bedroom.’

 

Harry laughed at Sean’s message and he went into the living room, sunk onto his settee and kicked off his shoes before he curled his legs up to make himself more comfortable. He texted a reply and sipped at his tea, very happy and relishing the calm, peaceful silence that encompassed his home.

The Tower had rarely been quiet, there was always something going on, something happening and even at his old home, he’d lived on a main street with no front garden, there was always traffic, always people shouting outside one of his windows in the middle of the night, the several times that drunken fights had broken out and the one time that some yob had actually thrown a bin through his living room window. It was no wonder that he’d never seen the place as a home; it was a storage facility where he’d kept all his stuff and had sometimes slept in. Not a place to raise a baby, to make a family, not like this place.

Harry could already envision a baby crawling around the living room floor, a highchair in the kitchen, high pitched giggles as he played with his son or daughter. He smiled happily, this place was a home, not just a house, and he loved it. Moving here had been the right thing to do, despite what anyone else said or thought, he knew in his heart that he’d needed this space, he’d needed a safe haven, a place he could run to if needs be and in the end, he had needed it and he’d come to love this house so very much in a relatively short amount of time.

He chatted via text message to Sean for a little while longer before they both said goodnight and Harry went up to bed; he checked his wards one last time, stripped himself off and climbed into bed. He had a problem that he needed to take care of before he’d be able to sleep, a persistent problem that had been annoying him all night and had been completely caused by Clint. Damn that confusing man.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Clint arrived safely back at the Tower and he only just realised that he was whistling a stupid, jaunty tune in time to prevent some serious ribbing from Tony as the elevator doors slipped open to reveal the penthouse floor. He didn’t fully escape though because the grin that was making his face hurt on both sides refused to dissipate and Tony ribbed him over that instead.

 

“You’re home too early for that grin to mean what it usually does, unless you skipped out on dessert and had a different kind.” Tony winked lasciviously and Clint laughed.

 

He shook his head. “Harry isn’t that easy.” He defended, even though his mind kept going back to the invite that Harry had given him, what would they be doing right now if he’d taken Harry up on that invite.

 

He shook those thoughts away. Harry wasn’t easy, despite the invitation. He was the most stubborn bastard he knew and that made him smile. Harry was worth fighting for and he swore that if it took him a decade, he would make Harry his willingly bonded Omega.

He couldn’t move too fast though, he had to go at Harry’s pace, slower than the snail, slow. He could do that…he _would_ do that, he swore it, he would make everything he’d ever done wrong up to Harry and he would care for him, protect him and love him for the rest of their lives. Harry deserved no less and it was with dawning realisation that he finally understood. He loved Harry. He loved him and he would do anything for him, but he had been pushing too hard, too fast to get what he wanted and he hadn’t taken into account Harry’s thoughts or feelings or how Harry had seen what had happened, it had taken the intervention of the enforcers to open his eyes to how he was actually treating Harry and he was sickened with himself.

He had violated Harry, he had been the one to lose control, Harry had already been weak, tortured for three straight weeks, day and night, he had been in a great deal of pain, sleep deprived, starved, dehydrated and off of his suppressant tablets for the first time since he’d matured enough to have full heat periods, there had been no way that Harry could have controlled the situation, it should have been him who had controlled everything, but he hadn’t been strong enough and he’d hurt Harry deeply, terribly.

Harry had forgiven him twice for what he’d done, but his oppressive, stifling actions had hurt Harry worse, the enforcers had made him see that and Clint hated, absolutely hated, the thought that he’d been the cause of Harry feeling even more hurt and distressed when all he wanted was for Harry to be happy. He realised now that he’d been going about it all wrong, but not anymore.

He decided that he was going to speak at length with Harry and if he was agreeable to the idea, that Harry was going to take the usual Alpha role. He was going to let Harry dictate what happened, when they would see one another, what they would do…everything that a typical pair would do would be reversed, it was the only way he could think of that would help Harry feel more comfortable with him, if he gave Harry all of the power, had him make all of the deciding factors and decisions in regards to them, then he would be unable to hurt him again. He hoped it worked, he really, really did.

 

“Earth to birdbrain Barton.”

 

Clint blinked and smiled as he saw his team members all staring at him. He controlled the blush that wanted to appear by suppressing it viciously. To be caught day dreaming like a school boy was bad enough without him blushing about it too.

 

“Sorry, just thinking.” He replied mildly.

 

“No need to ask what the subject was, that dopey grin you were wearing was enough of a tell.” Natasha said.

 

Clint smiled wider.

 

“I take it that the date went well?” Tony asked.

 

Clint nodded. “I learned a lot about him as a person.”

 

“Was he alright? Did he eat all of his food?” Steve fussed.

 

“He was perfectly fine and yes, he did eat all of his food, and all of his dessert, though he hated the decaffeinated coffee, apparently he wouldn’t water his plants with it.”

 

“Good boy, I like him.” Tony nodded as he gulped down his strong, dark, fully caffeinated coffee. “So I take it that you didn’t try to make more of the night? Unless you really don’t last too long.”

 

Clint scowled. “No, I thought it best to leave the night on a high rather than push myself on him. I’m going to do this properly Tony, I told you that the enforcers really opened my eyes, perhaps you should pay them a visit, maybe they could help you with your aversion to Omegas? But I’ve decided to let Harry dictate everything, we’re going to go slow and really do this properly. I’m going to date him, I want to know the real him, the person he is inside, before anything else happens. Everything has been fucked up from the start, I couldn’t control myself around his pheromones, it wasn’t his fault that he was releasing them, it wasn’t his fault that I reacted badly afterwards because of how Loki controlled me with the sceptre. I doubt he knew what month it was when he was in that room and what I did was unforgivable, but Harry has forgiven me, something I don’t deserve but I’m not going to question it, I’ll accept that and move on, like he wants me to. We can make this work; we will find a way to make it work, for all our sakes, including the baby’s. I owe it to the both of them to make this work and to back the fuck off before I hound him into the ground.”

 

Steve clapped him on the shoulder and the smile on his face told him that he’d said the right thing for once in his life.

 

“I’m proud of you, Clint.” Steve told him sincerely.

 

“As long as you keep to that promise, Clint.” Bruce told him. “Harry is still an Omega and he’s pregnant with your baby, he’s in his last trimester now, so the desire he’ll be feeling for you will be amplified.”

 

“I don’t think he has any desires for me.” Clint said seriously.

 

“Don’t try to tell him how to think or feel.” Bruce replied just as seriously. “He is a perfectly normal Omega under everything that has happened and he still reacts and thinks like a normal Omega. He will be desiring you because your baby is growing inside of him. Stay strong, don’t give in because if you do and it turns out he doesn’t feel the same desire once he’s given birth as he does while he’s pregnant, the both of you will be hurting and I don’t want that for either of you. Do as you plan to, get to know him, love him as a person, make him laugh, let him have fun and most importantly, let him go. Let him be his own person without crushing who he is under your foot, let him grow under your care even if some of the ‘Alpha dicks’ as Harry phrases it, laugh and spit at you, in the bigger picture they don’t matter at all, but Harry does matter, so gain his respect and his trust and eventually he’ll love you as a person too and not just as the Father to his baby and he won’t even see you as the Alpha who impregnated him on a rescue mission anymore. He’ll just see Clint, the man he loves.”

 

Clint swallowed and he nodded jerkily several times. “I will make this work if it’s what Harry wants as well.” He said detachedly. “Fury has put me into extensive training at S.H.I.E.L.D and I will learn to control myself and my baser thoughts. I won’t hurt him again. I won’t.”

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

Harry was floating on cloud nine, he really was as he busied himself around the house and the stupid smile on his face refused to leave. His damn cheeks were aching, hurting even, but he still couldn’t stop grinning like a complete loon.

It had been three weeks since his first date with Clint and since then they’d been on two more dates. Clint took him out once a week, always on a Thursday evening and they shared an intimate meal together, though the last date night they’d been on Clint had asked to come three hours early and had whisked him off to a cinema to treat him to a film that Sean had told him about that he’d told Clint he was interested in seeing before they’d gone for dinner.

Clint still refused his, now almost pleading, invitations to stay over at his home and Harry berated himself for acting like a desperate whore, but he couldn’t help it. All thoughts of what had happened in the past, all thoughts of exactly how he’d gotten pregnant had flown from his mind, they had naturally had a few painful talks about what had happened when Clint had mentioned he was going through rigorous S.H.I.E.L.D training to help him control himself perfectly. It was usually voluntary, or on a referral basis by the psychological evaluator at S.H.I.E.L.D, Fury had made it mandatory, with no exceptions, for all Alpha employees last month, even Agent Coulson had had to go through this training and he’d been nothing but a complete gentleman to him, even when he’d been on a preheat, but the man had smiled and told him that he was doing it to set an example to all of the Alphas complaining that they didn’t need the training, because if there was one person who actually _didn’t_ need the training at S.H.I.E.L.D it was Coulson, yet he’d gone through it, so none of the other Alphas could cause a fuss about it now, which is exactly what he’d wanted. Harry smiled about it, that man was too kind, too smart sometimes, for his own good.

Clint had been nothing but a kind, thoughtful man for the last few weeks and Harry was enjoying the positive attention immensely. Without the anger being stirred up through Clint’s demands, looks or outright controlling actions, Harry found himself actually wanting to spend time with him and wanting to get to know him. As soon as all of those typical Alpha qualities had disappeared, their relationship had started to bud and then slowly blossom.

Harry didn’t need to be controlled or told what to do, he didn’t need someone to dictate his day to him or to steer him around like a bloody bus as if he couldn’t walk on his own. He needed someone to care for him, to love him and spend time with him, to know the real him and what he liked and what he wanted and since the enforcers had straightened everything out, that’s exactly what Clint was doing and Harry loved it.

He looked forward to Thursdays more than any other day, he always pampered himself Wednesday night with a long soak in the bath, he cleaned every inch of his body and he spent most of Thursday picking out what he wanted to wear that didn’t make him look as obviously pregnant, as there was now no way that he could hide his bump without resorting to wearing a jumper than looked more like he was wrapped up in a twelve man tent and he welcomed the fluttery, butterfly nerves he got in the hours or so before Clint arrived.

This would be their fourth date and Harry was still nervous, he was half waiting for the other shoe to drop, but he shoved that thought away hard, he wouldn’t doubt anyone in such a way. He would not ruin this by expecting Clint to fail. He’d come to like the man that Clint was when he wasn’t posturing like an Alpha dick and telling him what to do and dragging him around or trying to evaluate his inner most secrets by staring at him and analysing him with his specialist S.H.I.E.L.D training. Once all of that had stopped, Harry was surprised to find that he actually got on well with Clint quite a bit and he bounced around the living room, obsessively straightening a small pile of books, tweaking a picture frame that he thought wasn’t completely straight as he waited for Clint to arrive for their date night. He wondered what Clint would do tonight, where he’d take him to eat this time.

 

“You’re terrible, Harry.”

 

He spun around and grinned at Sean, who was looking at him amusedly. They hugged in that awkward way that they had to do as their bellies touched before any other part of them was even close to touching.

 

“When’s he coming? Do you have time for a chat? Joe’s in work for another half an hour and there’s only some many times I can ignore phone calls from his Mother without getting a headache.”

 

Harry laughed. “Clint won’t be here for forty minutes yet, let’s have a cup of tea and a chat.”

 

Harry enjoyed his time with Sean, who he was coming to see as his very best friend, but he was still anxious and nervous for his date and time seemed to be moving backwards as he kept glancing at the clock on the wall only to realise that only a few minutes had passed since the last time he’d looked.

 

“Not boring you am I?” Sean laughed.

 

“No! God no, I just…”

 

“You want Clint to just hurry up and get here so that you can go and have your date, I understand. I was the same when I first met Joe. I couldn’t wait for him to arrive so that I could be with him. You and Clint are a good match Harry, despite the less than savoury start to your relationship. You’re good for one another and now that the enforcers have cleaned him up and sorted him out, I don’t know what’s holding you both back now, I’d be all over him if I were you.”

 

The sudden knock on the door startled an ‘eep’ sound from Harry that actually made him blush and he chuckled at himself for being such a twit as he shook his head and winked at a softly laughing Sean.

 

“Well that’s your man; I’ll put these cups in the sink and leave you two to it. Have fun, Harry, I’ll text you later tonight.”

 

Harry nodded and waved Sean off as he rushed to get to Clint, he was halfway to the door, excitement bubbling inside him, a happy grin already on his face when he stopped suddenly, he frowned and realised that Clint was ten minutes early. That had never happened before and Clint was obsessive about being on time, to the exact minute that Harry had agreed that he could come around to pick him up. He didn’t like this.

Harry slipped back into the kitchen, clamped a hand around Sean’s arm just as he was heading for the back door and put a finger to his lips. He grabbed his phone from where it was charging before his night out and he called Clint, all the while his heart was in his throat. He hoped that Clint was just as excited as he was and had come a little early with that excitement.

 

 _‘Hi Harry, are you alright? I’m just about to leave the Tower; you haven’t changed your mind have you? It’s okay if you have, I understand.’_ Clint assured him, though he sounded devastated, even as he tried to hide it and Harry’s stomach hit his knees.

 

A simple spell cast from his hip to hide his wand from Sean’s sight revealed that the person outside had malicious intent. He had been so wrapped up and happy with his life for the last week that, utter fucking idiot that he was, he had forgotten to reinforce his wards and they had slipped down to nothing. He wanted to beat himself up, but now wasn’t the time. He should have known, he should have damn well pulled his head out of his arse and realised that something was wrong when Sean had managed to get into the house through the back door without him realising it and without his wards alerting him. He’d just been so excited and happy that he hadn’t thought about it. He was a complete fool and tonight that lax idiocy might cost him and Sean their lives as well as the lives of their unborn babies.

 

_‘Harry?’_

 

“Clint. There is someone at the door. I don’t know who. I thought it was you, but then I realised that it was too early, so I called to check.”

 

The ferocious stream of hammering startled Harry into gasping. He quickly locked the back door and moved away from the door and the window, pulling Sean with him.

 

“I don’t think they’re going to go away. Sean and I are in the house Clint, we’re alone.” Harry said breathlessly as he, bravely in his opinion, went into the passageway that led to his front door, dragging a quaking Sean behind him, before he slipped up the stairs and barricaded himself and Sean into his bedroom, where he had put his gun in preparation for his date night, he had stopped taking it with him after the second date.

 

 _‘Do not open the door.’_ Clint told him seriously. _‘We’ll be there as soon as we can, I swear.’_

“Okay, but you might want to hurry it up a little. I just heard a window breaking.” Harry whispered. “I’m going to get my gun, please hurry, Clint.”

 

“What are we going to do?” Sean whimpered, his body hunched, his eyes wide and showing far too much white, like a terrified horse about to bolt. Harry pulled him into a comforting hug as he listened to Clint yelling at the other Avengers and then there was a scuffle over the phone and suddenly Steve was talking to him.

 

_‘Don’t engage them! Harry, listen to me, please, don’t go near them, don’t hang up on…’_

 

Harry hung up the phone and then he called the emergency number for the enforcers. It answered after just half a ring.

 

_‘This is the Omega emergency response team, where are you located?’_

 

Harry jumped when he heard heavy booted feet on his stairs. He swallowed and warded the bedroom door tighter before he went to get his gun out of the safe he kept in his bedroom. He was too afraid to speak in case the intruders heard him and he kept Sean quiet and indicated with points and hand gestures to get him to go into the attached en suite bathroom.

 

 _‘If you can’t respond, we can trace your call with your permission; if you give your permission, please just make any sort of noise.’_ The Alpha enforcer on the other end of the phone sounded desperate, like he really, really wanted to help, but couldn’t do anything more than he already had.

 

“My house is flagged.” Harry said softly as he walked into the en suite bathroom after Sean, gun in one hand, phone in the other and he locked the door and snuggled himself down beside the sink, squashing Sean against the wall, using his own body to shield his friend’s. “I’m Harry James Potter, there are people in my house, they broke in through a downstairs window.”

_‘I’ve got your address, a response team has been sent and will be with you as quickly as possible, stay low, keep away from any doors or windows and lock yourself in any room that you can.’_

 

“Is Luke or Ollie-Jay there?” Harry asked fearfully as he felt the wards on his bedroom door fall under an onslaught of gunfire. After all if there was no door to anchor the wards…there were no wards.

 

 _‘Harry, what’s happened?’_ Ollie’s voice had never sounded sweeter and he was so glad that the man was on duty tonight. _‘Carson said he heard gunfire over the phone.’_

 

“They’re inside the house.” Harry said as loudly as he dared as he heard someone rifling through his wardrobe in the next room. “They have some serious firepower, at least semi-automatics and they just shot through a locked door. They’re right outside the room that I’m hiding in. They found me, Ollie. I’ve got another pregnant Omega with me too, my neighbour and friend, Sean. His Alpha, Joe is still in work.”

 

_‘Luke is on his way to you with a full team Harry, just hold tight. You and Sean.’_

 

Harry nodded, even though he knew that Ollie-Jay couldn’t see it over the phone. He pressed back against the wall and hugged the sink to his body, hiding his pregnant belly against the porcelain and hiding Sean from immediate view of the door. Whatever happened, he hoped that Sean and his daughter were unhurt and completely fine at the end of it.

There was silence from the bedroom and Harry didn’t even breathe as he trained his gun on the door, his arms relaxed, but his elbows locked, ready to fire the minute that door opened as he strained his hearing to hear any little noise to indicate where the intruders were, he needn’t have bothered as the bathroom door was suddenly kicked in and Sean screamed, but Harry reacted on instinct and he shot the first man through the door on complete reflex, right in the stomach, the second man met a similar fate, only Harry got him through the groin, but the third man, a huge, muscled beast of a man, pounced on him and bashed the hand holding the gun against the side of the bath and Harry let it go with an automatic impulse reaction to the immediate, severe pain in his wrist. He heard shouting through his phone that he’d dropped on the floor, Ollie-Jay’s worried, scared voice as Harry grappled with the bigger, stronger man who was trying to subdue him.

A punch to the head, glass breaking and Harry screamed, Sean screamed and then it was all over, another man rushed in to the bathroom and he had a small, brown glass bottle in one hand and a cloth in the other. The first man grabbed Harry, dazed as he was from the punch to the face and from his head bouncing off of the bathroom mirror and he held him still, pinning his arms and wrapping a leg around Harry’s own so he couldn’t kick out and the second man clamped the wet cloth around his mouth and nose.

He tried not to breathe, he clawed at the hands clamped over his mouth and nose and he panicked as he felt his body weaken, as he felt the effects of the chloroform as it started affecting him, slowing his body and muddling his mind.

He tried to kick out to no effect as that thickly muscled leg clenched him tighter, making his legs useless as a weapon. He wriggled as much as he could to try and free himself, but it didn’t work and he even tried to throw his head back to dislodge the cloth, but he was held too tightly, one huge hand from the man behind him clamped over his forehead to keep it still as the second man pushed on the cloth harder, forcing him to breathe in the fumes from the wet cloth. He even tried to bite the hand of the man pushing the cloth into his face, but the cloth was folded over too many times and all he was biting was the chloroform sodden cloth. This fight was over, he couldn’t do any more and he couldn’t break free, he could only hope that the Avengers and the enforcers got here quickly enough to stop him from being kidnapped and to help Sean, who was still huddled like a terrified child against the bathroom sink. As a third unknown man came into the room, the last thing Harry heard was Sean screaming and his vision petered out slowly and then, all at once, he fell unconscious.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I make no apologies for this; it’s just far too much fun to play around with this universe and it would be a waste to do things by half. Originally this scene only contained Harry and Sean wasn’t even there, he never came over for a chat and it was only Harry who was attacked, but that’s just not fun enough, so I added in a second pregnant Omega and poor Sean is being dragged along for the ride too. It livens things up a little.  
> Anyway, thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it, I’ll be seeing you lovelies very soon with chapter seventeen as I made sure I was more than halfway through it before posting this chapter, I won’t leave you with such a terrible cliffhanger for long, I’m going to post it exactly one week from now, so until then lovelies,
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	17. Disaster

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last Time
> 
> He tried to kick out to no effect as that thickly muscled leg clenched him tighter, making his legs useless as a weapon. He wriggled as much as he could to try and free himself, but it didn’t work and he even tried to throw his head back to dislodge the cloth, but he was held too tightly, one huge hand from the man behind him clamped over his forehead to keep it still as the second man pushed on the cloth harder, forcing him to breathe in the fumes from the wet cloth. He even tried to bite the hand of the man pushing the cloth into his face, but the cloth was folded over too many times and all he was biting was the chloroform sodden cloth. This fight was over, he couldn’t do any more and he couldn’t break free, he could only hope that the Avengers and the enforcers got here quickly enough to stop him from being kidnapped and to help Sean, who was still huddled like a terrified child against the bathroom sink. As a third unknown man came into the room, the last thing Harry heard was Sean screaming and his vision petered out slowly and then, all at once, he fell unconscious.

Chapter Seventeen – Disaster

 

Walking around the house that Clint had come to see as Harry’s home was difficult. The front window was smashed in; the front door had been open when they’d arrived. Too fucking late.

Harry’s bedroom door was in pieces, shot to hell and back by what must have been a semi-automatic and the en suite door had been kicked in, the splintered pieces laying everywhere. The bathroom mirror was broken and shards lay where they’d fallen, speckled with drops of blood, whether Harry’s or Sean’s they were unsure as of yet.

There was a wet rag on the floor that was emitting a faint, sweet smell. He’d bet with everything he had that when it was tested it would come back as chloroform.

Two bodies had been found. One shot through the groin, which caused him to wince on reflex before realising that this man had attacked Harry and then he had the almost uncontrollable urge to give the already dead body a solid kick. The second had been shot right through the stomach; they had both died in agony. Clint took almost perverse pleasure in that piece of knowledge knowing that Harry had shot them both.

He had lost Harry again. The anger he felt, the failure, it ate away inside of him until he was shaking with the effort it cost him to suppress it.

The enforcer response team had arrived just a minute after the Avengers team had, led by an enraged Captain Luke. All nine members of the team were as angry and frustrated as he was, especially Captain Luke, who had the burdening weight of knowing that two pregnant Omegas had been taken from a house that was flagged for rapid response, his higher ups were not going to be happy with this perceived failure and he definitely wasn’t happy with it.

 

“We have the enforcers helping us look.” Natasha told him calmly. “We’ll find him Clint, it took us a week to find him the last time, we will find him again.”

 

“What state will he be in?” Clint demanded angrily, shrugging off her hand. “What state will he be in when we find him ‘Tasha!” He shouted. He felt bad that he didn’t even care about the other Omega who had been taken with Harry, as no body or quivering Omega had been found in the house, but he just couldn’t bring himself to care about anyone or anything that wasn’t Harry.

 

Steve came right over and stood as a pillar of silent support, but also to stop Clint from hitting Natasha in anger, he was sure. Not that Natasha would let him hit her; she’d beat the shit out of him for trying.

 

“S.H.I.E.L.D is here and they’re processing the house.” Tony said as he walked over, still in his Ironman suit, but his face plate was pushed up. “Let’s say we head back to the Tower and start searching, Jarvis has already begun a CCTV search for Harry and I want to set up a separate search for every single car or van that came down this road. They had to have had a vehicle waiting or they wouldn’t have gotten in, gotten Harry and Sean and gotten out again so fast. I’m thinking it had to be a van or a people carrier, even with Harry and Sean exchanged for the two dead guys upstairs, there had to be more people to subdue them both and get them out, which points towards a larger vehicle, I can’t see many vans needing to come down to this suburban area, it’ll stick out like a sore thumb.”

 

Clint liked that idea, actually doing something instead of staying in this house that had come to mean Harry’s happiness to him. He wanted to be doing something; he wanted to be looking for Harry. He wanted him back and he was not going to rest again until Harry was back with him.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry came around slowly and silently. He only remained still from experience and training as his brain slowly fought off the muffling effects of the chloroform and it took long minutes before Harry even realised what had happened and why his body hurt so much.

He gritted his teeth as he took an evaluation of his body. He was still dressed this time, he could feel his baby moving softly, but most importantly, as he slid a hand to his thigh, he still had his wand. He inched it out of the holster and into his hand which was bruised and swollen from being forced backwards and bashed against the side of the bath to get him to drop his gun.

He listened intently, but he heard nothing. He was lying on a cold, concrete floor of what he took to be an abandoned warehouse, or at least a rarely used one.

He sat himself up and closed his eyes as he swayed, he was still drugged, but thankfully he had magic, so he was fighting the chloroform off sooner than a Muggle would have, which is likely why he was alone and unsecured, they thought he’d be under for another hour at least and that it was safe to leave him.

He was so thankful that he would have kissed his captors for their stupidity if his mind wasn’t so intent on murderous rage.

These people definitely were not professional kidnappers, Harry thought as he realised that the door to the room he was dumped in wasn’t even locked. His wand in hand and the other held out as a shield for his baby belly, Harry peeked around the door and swallowed. Not such an abandoned warehouse after all as he watched the men rushing around, doing jobs, loading huge crates into lorries that were coming and going and he realised exactly where he was. The nuclear armaments warehouse that his original captors had been so insistent on him giving information about. The warehouse that S.H.I.E.L.D were watching intently from just over the road. He had to get to the S.H.I.E.L.D warehouse.

He closed the door and turned back to look at Sean, who was still very much out of it and still unconscious on the floor. Harry checked him over as best as he could, but he was no Healer, Doctor rather, and he had no medical training or experience past the numerous times he’d been in the hospital wing as a student, but Sean seemed to be doing alright.

He cast a spell on his friend to make him lighter than he was, as there was no way that Harry could pick him up and carry him in his condition, before he picked up Sean and carried the pregnant man to the door and he eased it open again. If Sean had been awake, Harry could have gotten him on his back at least, but it felt wrong to be exposing Sean so that he could peek around the door to make sure that the coast was clear, but it was the risk he had to take and it felt sickening that he was taking that risk without Sean’s permission or even his awareness, but it was either this, or leaving him in the storage room and he definitely wasn’t doing that, so this was the lesser of the two evils, though both were bad.

He slid out into the open warehouse and shut the door to the room he had woken up in and he stealth walked away from it, hugging the wall, hugging Sean and cursing his baby belly for protruding as much as it did, even if his belly was smaller than average for his stage of gestation.

He reckoned that if he wasn’t seen, then he had about half an hour, a little under an hour tops before he and Sean were noticed missing. He needed to strategise and use that time wisely, it was their only chance to make it out of this unscathed.

If he remembered rightly from the reports he’d read and written up, that he wasn’t supposed to have even known existed no less, this building had six levels. The only problem was, he had no idea what level he was on and he couldn’t just find a staircase and walk down it. This place had to be guarded; they had to have security cameras somewhere. If he just walked down a staircase then he was going to be found, but likewise he couldn’t just tear the boarding from the windows and jump with an unconscious Sean in his arms. He needed to alert S.H.I.E.L.D that he was here; he needed the agents just over the road to know that he was here.

Skulking around a busy warehouse that housed weapons, ammunition and nuclear missiles was nerve tingling, especially with his unconscious, unaware, pregnant friend being held in his arms like an overgrown, sleeping toddler, doubly so when he knew that he was on a time limit and that time was slowly, but consistently, running out.

It put an edge of urgency and fear to everything he did and his mouth was so dry that he couldn’t produce enough saliva to even lick at his dry lips. He didn’t know how much of that was the aftereffects of the chloroform and how much was fear, but he did know that it was a mix of the both.

He rounded another corner and almost knocked Sean into a man who was facing the other way, leaning against the wall and nodding silently, before he let out a happy burst of laughter into a mobile phone. Harry’s breathing just stopped as his heart missed eight or nine beats and he was sure he had just aged ten or twenty years.

Then an idea formed, but he needed that phone. He could call S.H.I.E.L.D himself and let them know where he was, the problem was the man in front of him was all Alpha, he was over six feet tall and at least seventeen stone of bulk muscle.

Harry eased Sean down and back around the corner, very dangerous as anyone could come up behind them and see Sean slumped against the wall, but this was the first opening he’d had, the first chance to do something to get them both out of here, so he waited, silent, tense and so afraid that the fear was clogging his throat as he crouched down behind the man, still hugging the wall and down as low as he could get without making a single sound or restricting his movement in case he needed to move fast, which was difficult to calculate with his pregnant body, but he managed.

The idiot, who hadn’t even realised he was there, finished his phone call and lifted the device from his ear. It was then that he seemed to realise that something was wrong as he sniffed exaggeratedly and turned his head to look to his left, still sniffing.

He was a sensitive Alpha. He could smell a pregnant Omega nearby and it was obvious that Harry and Sean were the only pregnant Omegas in this entire building; the man knew that one or both of them were close by and he couldn’t work out why.

He sniffed deeply and turned to look behind him, looking right over Harry before turning to look the way he’d been facing.

 

“I know you’re here little boy, I can smell your pungent scent.” He all but snarled. “Honestly, it’s turning me on; fertile little bodies always turn me on.”

 

The man got a gun out from a side holster, under his left armpit and he started pushing buttons on the phone as he looked around critically. Harry whispered a stunner and as the man heard his whisper, he spun around, again looking right over Harry’s head again, only to be hit with the jet of red light from below and he fell unconscious.

Harry took his loaded gun and the phone. He deleted the numbers that had been punched in and he called the number he knew off by heart. It rang and rang and rang and rang some more. It went to voicemail twice and twice Harry disconnected and rang again quickly. He had no idea how much battery life was left on this damn thing.

He picked up the feather light Sean and huddled them both into a corner between several crates and he looked through slim gaps and popped his eyes over the stacks of crates to see if he was still alone, thankfully he was, just as his call finally connected.

 

 _‘What the fuck do you want?!’_ Clint’s voice roared down the phone at him.

 

Harry looked around quickly, hoping to god that no one had been near him and heard Clint’s yelling, which had made Harry’s right ear ring violently.

 

“Speak quieter!” Harry hissed angrily as he looked around for anyone coming.

 

_‘Harry? Is that you?’_

 

“Of course it’s me you dick, who else would be calling you and telling you to stop fucking shouting before you give away my hiding place!”

 

_‘Where are you? Are you hurt?’_

 

“Just shut up and listen, are the others with you?”

 

 _‘We’re all here; we’ve been searching for you.’_ Tony’s voice said from a little further away, but Harry knew then that he was now on speakerphone.   

 

“Is Director Fury there?” Harry demanded in a whisper as he peeked over a crate and scanned the area.

 

_‘I’m here Agent Potter, where are you?’_

“I’m actually inside the nuclear armaments warehouse, just over the road from S.H.I.E.L.D.” Harry stressed. “I have no idea what level I’m on. I knocked a guy out and took his gun and his phone. This place is crawling with people and there’s no way for me to get out, not in this condition.”

 

 _‘What condition?! If they’ve hurt you, I swear I’ll…’_ Clint’s angry voice butted in.

 

“I meant my pregnant condition.” Harry deadpanned. “Do not turn into an Alpha dick on me Clint. Control yourself! I need you now more than ever; do not ruin this when you’ve done so well recently. I need someone who can damn well think properly because my brain is still muddled up from the chloroform.”

 

 _‘You’re sure you’re in the warehouse over the road from the S.H.I.E.L.D operation?’_ Fury asked.

 

“Is there another nuclear munitions warehouse that I’m unaware of?” Harry demanded in a hiss. “This place is so full of weapons that I have to hide behind crates of them! Some of the crates have nuclear stickers on them.”

 

_‘That place is too heavily guarded, we can’t storm it.’_

 

“I know.” Harry said softly. “I need orders though; I can’t do this on my own, even if my brain was working properly. There are too many people here!”

 

 _‘Your orders are to sit tight, Agent Potter. Stay hidden, we’ll get you out.’_ Director Fury told him.

 

“It’s a bit hard to hide when there are Alphas here who can smell me.” Harry hissed.

 

_‘Can you stop emitting pheromones?’_

 

Harry clenched his teeth to keep from shouting at them. “I am terrified out of my fucking mind and don’t know forwards from back because I was drugged with chloroform, no I cannot stop emitting the pheromones and even if I could, Sean can’t, he’s still unconscious from the drug!”

 

_‘Remember your training.’_

 

“I was a junior Agent! I wasn’t even cleared to go into the field; I have minimal training at best!” Harry hissed down the phone, which beeped ominously, almost cutting off his words.

 

 _‘What was that?’_ Steve asked.

 

“The battery on the phone is dying.” Harry said, feeling queasy.

 

 _‘We have your location, stay hidden, stay safe, we’ll get to you very soon.’_ Agent Coulson told him and Harry almost sagged in relief. He really liked Agent Coulson, he trusted the Alpha to get him out of this.

 

Harry pulled the phone from his ear and turned it off, it had low battery, but it wasn’t critically low yet. He turned it off to preserve the remaining battery, hoping that if he needed it, it would have a few minutes of power left to let him make a final phone call and of course he had to turn it off to stop the sporadic beeping that warned him that the battery was low and would alert everyone within hearing distance that he was nearby.

He checked around and then moved from his hiding place to a better one with Sean slung over his shoulder like an empty sack. He found one that Clint would have been proud of as he, with great difficulty, climbed a stack of crates and hid in a small crawl space on top of a temporary room that was in the middle of the warehouse and from there he took out his wand and warded a small area, he held the stolen gun close and the phone closer, his wand gripped in a sweaty palm and he cuddled with the still sleeping Sean. He didn’t know if it would be better or worse if Sean was awake and sharing this experience with him or not.

He forced himself to try and stop himself from emitting pheromones, putting up a scent dispersing ward when he didn’t think he’d be able to force his body to stop oozing his pregnant state into the air. He berated himself harshly for getting so loved up that he forgot to reinforce his wards, how fucking stupid was he to actually _forget_ to check on the one thing that was helping to keep him and his baby safe?

At the thought of his baby he slid a hand to his belly and rubbed gently. He’d shot two men back at his house. He hadn’t even thought about hesitating over pulling the trigger as they’d come through the door, he’d just done it. His first thought had been to protect his baby, to protect Sean and his baby girl, and that’s exactly what he’d done…to an extent at least. He’d shot first with no hesitation, his only regret is that he hadn’t been able to turn the gun from the second man to the third before the bastard had pounced on him and gotten the gun from his hand.

A groan had Harry checking on Sean quickly, only to realise that it wasn’t his friend making the groaning sound, so he curiously peeked out from his hiding place to see that the man he had stunned was regaining consciousness. He hunched down and checked the scent disperser, it was still working and he forced himself to be still and silent, lying flat on his back on the flat roof of the small room as he couldn’t lie on his front and he listened as the Alpha growled ferociously, likely at having the better taken of him by a tiny, heavily pregnant Omega.

Pounding footsteps ran off in one direction and Harry peeked over the rim of the roof and swallowed, watching the leg of the man he’d stunned spin around a corner. His captors would know in minutes that he was missing from his room, though he hoped the man he’d stunned didn’t remember the red light, Harry had been crouched by his feet and had aimed upwards, so he didn’t think he had seen it, but he might have caught a flash of red and with his attackers from the Tower that were still rambling about bright lights and immense force, that mumble of red light might be all S.H.I.E.L.D needed to know that something was going on and he could even be pulled in for questioning. He wished he was proficient in memory charms, but he wasn’t and after what had happened to Lockhart when he was twelve, he wasn’t overly eager to try his hand at them either.

Harry stayed where he was, he wasn’t going to move even though he had no clear escape if he was caught up here, he was leery of Apparating because of the effect it could have on his growing baby, it hadn’t been dangerous while he was newly pregnant, but the further into his pregnancy he got, the worse the effects would be, including disfigurement or even death to his baby as the constricting travel could crush the baby’s forming head or cave in the soft spots of the baby’s head which could squash down so much it could affect the baby’s developing brain or even completely destroy it. He would not Apparate himself and Sean unless absolutely necessary with no other option, which would mean he, Sean and their babies were facing certain death anyway.

A group of armed men came running around the corner and they searched everywhere, behind every crate, inside the ones not already nailed down, in every corner and they did it so thoroughly that Harry gulped fearfully. If he hadn’t come up here, if he hadn’t risked dragging himself and Sean up to this high, tiny crawl space, they would have been found, there was no question about that and that thought terrified him. If he’d been unable to climb with Sean, if he hadn’t been able to force himself up to this tiny crawl space, then he’d still be down on the floor with Sean.

The armed people obviously thought him and Sean unable to climb in their pregnant states because they rushed off as soon as they cleared the area and Harry shifted carefully and quietly over the small crawl space and peeked over the other side to see the men using the same sweeping formation, checking behind all the crates in this area too, looking inside them, everywhere except where they thought they wouldn’t be, which is exactly where he had hidden himself and Sean.

He lay back down with Sean and swallowed his fear, he just had to stay quiet and stay hidden, he couldn’t see any security cameras, which did surprise him, but he was counting his blessings. He wished he had a way to tell the time, he had no idea how long it had been since he’d called Clint, he had no idea what they were doing, he just had to trust that they were doing something and that they would come for him and an innocent civilian. He just hoped that it was in time.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X  

 

It seemed like hours had passed since Harry had called them and Clint’s heart was hammering. He and Thor were of the same mind tonight, for once.

 

“We must go and get Harry!” Thor insisted loudly. Very loudly. “He has a babe growing within him; we cannot let him lose the babe. It would destroy him! I protect my friends, and their babes, I would see no harm come to him.”

 

“I agree with Thor.” Clint said quickly. “We need to get him now! He’s hiding behind crates; they’ll find him in no time once they realise that he’s missing.”

 

“We need a strategic plan of attack.” Steve insisted.

 

“Fuck your plans!” Tony said with a snarl. “I say we go in, all guns blazing, find him and Sean and drag them out.”

 

“This warehouse is heavily armed, Stark.” Fury cut in angrily. “It’s a weapons facility, they have crates and crates of guns, grenades, nuclear bombs, ammunition…we can’t go in all guns blazing because one missed bullet could blow the place up and you already did that once and I want this situation controlled and done with. I hope by tomorrow that not only will we have Potter and his neighbour back, but we’ll have the main instigators of the mercenaries and thugs sent after him and some answers as to why they’re targeting him. They must believe he has information that they either want or need.”

 

“We’re wasting time!” Clint stressed, he was upset, angry and if he were honest with himself, he was scared for Harry. He wanted him back and he wanted him safe, nothing else was acceptable. “It’s already almost one in the morning! Harry has been gone for five hours already.”

 

“We understand your concern, Agent Barton, but we need to plan for this one. We cannot storm that warehouse; we have been watching it for almost two years now, watching their comings and goings, who they’re dealing with, who they’re buying off of, we know what’s in that warehouse and I know that we cannot take it by storming it. It has to be infiltrated.”

 

“I can do that.” Clint said with steel determination. He would rescue Harry properly this time.

 

“At least you can’t get him pregnant this time.” Tony snarked.

 

Clint clenched his hands and his teeth, but he ignored Tony, Harry was more important, he needed his whole and undivided attention on rescuing Harry, he would not mess this up.

 

“I do not like this waiting.” Thor growled angrily. “What sort of warriors are you that you would leave one of your own in such a place?!”

 

The huge blond did not want to fall out with his friends, but this waiting seemed pointless to him, he was clutching Mjolnir in his right fist and he had half a mind to fly to this warehouse where Harry and his friend were being kept and use his hammer to break open the walls to free them both. He cared for Harry, who had become very close to him and the thought of the tiny Omega suffering yet again at the hands of cruel men angered him to the point where storm clouds were gathering in the skies. It wouldn’t be long before the thunder started and then the lightning would light up the skies and he would feed from that and truly lose his temper.

He hadn’t had a chance to unleash his wrath upon those who had attacked Harry the first time around and he had wanted to, he really, really had and he hadn’t even really known Harry back then, had never see him in person or spoken to him, but now…after knowing Harry for seven months, caring for him and his growing babe, laughing with him, being shouted at by him, just cuddling as they watched the Midgardian entertainment box, being fed by Harry. He had missed his feisty friend in the last month while he had been away in his own home, but he made sure to visit him often.

 

“I will go and destroy those who have dared take Harry again.” He swore, talking over the arguments. “This waiting is useless, and pointless.” He told them sternly. “We would be better suited going to this warehouse and fighting our way to where Harry is hiding with his friend.”

 

“Have you not listened to a word I’ve said?” Fury shouted.

 

“I have listened and I believe that the best course of action to take is to break through the walls and take Harry from them. I will not have him stay in such a place.”

 

“This is getting us nowhere.” Bruce insisted. “We have to do something and soon. If we storm the place, we’ll get killed and then where will Harry and Sean be? We need to be clever, we need to infiltrate the building and storm it from the _inside_.”

 

“I like this idea!” Thor said loudly.

 

They agreed a plan of action quickly, called in to S.H.I.E.L.D for all the backup that was on hand and they left, they just hoped that Harry was alright where he was now that he’d switched off the cell phone that had had low battery.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Luke was going to tear his hair out soon, he was sure he was. Those damn government pricks had blocked him from doing his job. They had given him and his team a severely distressed Alpha named Joe, who’s Omega, Sean, had been abducted with Harry, and then left him to it.

Poor Joe was almost crazed with worry and fear, having come home from work happy and eagerly awaiting some quality time with his bonded, pregnant lover, only to find enforcers all over the street, blocking him from his own home, the front door to his neighbour’s house kicked in and then he had to be told what had happened and Luke had been the one who’d had to tell this poor man that his five month pregnant lover had been abducted.

He’d watched as genuine concern and worry for his neighbour, Harry, had turned into full scale panic, rage, heart stopping fear and utter distress.

Joe hadn’t believed them; he’d about torn his own house apart looking for Sean as Luke had followed behind him to make sure that he didn’t hurt himself in his primitive Alpha mind set. Only when Joe had searched every single room in his house and had sunk to his knees in the middle of his living room, a soft pink teddy in one hand and a small jumper that must have belonged to his Omega in the other, did Luke softly, calmly and carefully tell him about what had happened, about how Harry had been abducted before, which is how he had gotten pregnant in the first place, how those same people had sent thugs and mercenaries after Harry to kill or capture him and how Harry’s phone call to the response team had clearly stated that Sean was with him in the house at the time of the attack. Luke didn’t tell Joe that the phone call had also included gunfire, both Omegas screaming or that they’d found a rag with traces of chloroform on it and glass speckled with blood, he figured Joe was mentally tortured enough with losing his pregnant Omega, without being told all of the details about it too.

Burne was watching over Joe, who was trying to goad him into fighting, lashing out at him, but Burne was a complete professional with everything he did and he didn’t rise to the goading, nor did he lash out back at Joe, he just spoke calmly to him, told him that he needed to ease himself down because his bonded was going to need him when he was found and Luke admired Burne for his collected calmness, Burne was definitely the rock of his team and he’d be lost without him, which is why he was thinking of promoting him when Mitch retired in a few months’ time, Burne had certainly earned his upcoming promotion over the years.

He answered his phone when it rang, listening to Agent Phil Coulson speak to him, he murmured general agreements and then the call cut off and he turned to his team and to Joe.

 

“I just want Sean back!” Joe screamed at Burne, his voice ragged and his throat likely torn from the desperate shouting he had been doing.

 

“We understand Joe, we do, we want both Harry and Sean back, safe, well and unharmed. We have to trust that the Avengers team are doing all they can for them both and from the last update, Harry called Clint and he said that he was fine and he had Sean with him still, they’re both fine.”

 

“If that’s the case then why didn’t Sean call me?!” Joe demanded as he thrust his phone at Luke. The one he’d been holding like a lifeline for the last three hours.

 

“The battery was low; the beeping was going to give away their position.” He said calmly as he held his hands up and out placatingly. “They’re going in to get them both now, they know where they are Joe, they’ll get them out.”

 

Joe nodded and he sunk bonelessly into a chair and Luke sighed silently in relief. He could understand Joe’s distress, he really could, all of them could, they were all bonded themselves, they all had their own families and this was every Alpha’s nightmare, to see it played out in front of their eyes like this was rare and gut clenching in its agony and he was disgusted that anyone could take two pregnant Omegas and abuse them like this.

If that Director Fury ever told him who was responsible for this, he would make it his life’s mission to kill them dead, if the Avengers didn’t do so first. No one got away with kidnapping, abusing, hurting or scaring any Omega on his watch. Absolutely fucking no one.

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

Harry was on the edge of a panic attack, he was sure. He couldn’t breathe properly and the overwhelming, all-encompassing fear was drowning him as he lay in that tiny space and tried to breathe normally, tried to keep himself calm as he quivered in jerky movements, his wand in one hand, the gun in the other. He was too afraid to sit up, even though his back was killing him and he was too afraid to look over the rim of the roof in case someone spotted him. The warehouse was crawling with people, mostly Alphas, though there were Betas too and even women dotted around. He stayed where he was, lying in the dead centre of the roof space right next to Sean so that he couldn’t be seen and he waited and waited and waited for any sign that the several people he now considered friends were coming for him and Sean.

The wait was too much; he couldn’t just sit here and wait to die. He was pregnant, but he was still a damn wizard and this was him reaching the end of his tether. He’d had enough, more than enough.

He crawled to the edge of the roof space and he started picking people off one by one with stunner spells. There was pandemonium when the bodies were found, which was what Harry had wanted. In the ensuing madness Harry managed to take down several more people, which ramped up the chaos even more. He crawled from one side of the roof to the other, targeting whoever was isolated and alone and if there wasn’t one of them that he could immediately pick off, he laid low and waited.

He was getting tired however; pregnancy and excessive magic usage did not mix, especially when he had been awake for long hours now when usually he was in bed by now.

He lay down and curled up, letting the pandemonium chaos ensue around him. He was so tired his eyes were itchy and his throat was sore. He closed his eyes and clenched his hand tight around his wand; he made sure he did not tighten his hand around the gun, that was a rookie mistake.

 

“Where are you little Omegas?” A man shouted. “If you come out now, we won’t kill those squalling things in your stomachs!”

 

Harry didn’t move, he stayed still and tried to calm his racing heart. Maybe Clint wasn’t coming for him after all. Maybe leaving him here was the only option, he knew it was impossible for them to storm this warehouse, it was too well protected and there were too many weapons just lying in crates that their captors could use. There was ammo strewn everywhere.

He knew he hadn’t been the easiest person to live with, his damaged leg, his preheats, or lack of them as well apparently, his bitch fits, his hormonal crying fits, his murderous rages, the break in at the tower, the attack on his house and in the park, he was more trouble than he was worth, he hadn’t done anything for S.H.I.E.L.D since his kidnapping, he hadn’t done anything for the Avengers, he hadn’t done anything but shout and scream at them, attack them and accuse them of all sorts. Why would they even want him back?

Two tears slipped out of his eyes and Harry clenched his teeth and swiped them away. If they weren’t coming, then he needed to do something to get himself and Sean out, he couldn’t stay here while he was carrying his baby and had his unconscious friend lying next to him. If it was just him, he’d resign himself to his fate and go out fighting, but not with his baby still growing inside of him and not with Sean and his unborn daughter right next to him.

He looked at his friend and saw blue eyes blinking groggily back at him. His heart went into his throat and he placed a hand gently, but tightly, over Sean’s mouth.

 

“Be quiet.” He breathed as loudly as he dared. “I got us safe, but they can hear us and they’ll see us if we sit up or move to the edge.”

 

Sean’s eyes were wide and he started breathing quick and shallowly. Hyperventilating, Sean was hyperventilating.

 

“No, no Sean, I need you to stay calm, okay? You and the baby are fine, we’re all fine, just keep calm. They’re coming for us; we just need to stay hidden for a little while longer.” He all but pleaded.

 

Sean nodded, but as he woke up more fully, it was obvious that he was terrified out of his mind and both of his hands were pressed tight to his belly.

 

“How…how did you get us up here?” Sean’s voice croaked softly between them, looking at Harry’s bigger belly.

 

“With great difficulty.” Harry smiled. “Thankfully my belly is smaller than average and I do have a bit of training and a lot of determination. I wasn’t going to let anything happen to you, even if it meant…meant…” Harry trailed off, but his hand went to his belly, showing Sean what he had been trying to say and his friend’s face went white and his eyes widened.

 

“No! No Harry, I wouldn’t have wanted you to.” Sean said as he moved to hug Harry tightly. “You don’t deserve this, you or baby.”

 

“You wouldn’t even be here if you weren’t friends with me.”

 

“I want to be friends with you, I like you, Harry.” Sean whispered as he held Harry tighter. “I’m glad I’m here…well not glad, I’d much rather neither of us were here, but I’d want to be here with you, so we can deal with it together. I would have been worried absolutely sick at home waiting for news on you, at least if I’m here I know you’re okay. Oh god, Joe! He’s going to be out of his mind with worry.”

 

Harry calmed him and snuggled into him. “Shhh, it’ll be alright. Clint was agonising over where we were too, I managed to call him to tell him where we were, they are coming for us.” Harry said with more conviction than he felt. “They would have told Joe too, so he knows you’re safe.”

 

“You called him, how?” Sean asked.

 

Harry showed him the phone. “It’s got very low battery, it was beeping, I had to turn it off or they would have found us.” Harry said sadly, seeing the longing in Sean’s eyes to just call Joe to let him know that he and the baby were alright, just so that he could hear his Alpha’s voice. He felt the same; he’d give up both his arms just to hear Clint’s voice at the moment.

 

“You’ll see him in person very soon.” Harry said with a smile, but inside he kept worrying that no one was coming for them. If things went drastically wrong, he swore that he would give the phone to Sean so that he could call Joe, it had enough battery life left for one short call, but if he could get Sean out of here, even at the high cost of his own baby, then he’d do it. “He’ll be there waiting for you and your baby Princess when we get out of here and then he’s not ever going to let you out of his sight again, if he doesn’t quit work to stay with you then you’ll be going in to work with him.”

 

Sean grinned and covered his mouth to stop himself from laughing. He shook his head.

 

“I won’t let him and I won’t let him blame you either. You’re our friend, but he is going to be angry.”

 

Harry nodded. “I sort of figured that out already, I thought that you would be too.”

 

Sean shook his head. “I have been unconscious until very recently. You have been awake, you have been lugging me around, getting us to safety even at risk to you and…and your own baby. I would still be wherever we were dumped if it wasn’t for you and who knows what would have happened to me then?”

 

Harry swallowed, because if he had been a Muggle like Sean, that’s exactly where they would have been and they’d be having god knows what done to them at this moment and no one would have known where they were. He had no doubts that his captors would have used Sean as a way to make him talk, and for Sean and his unborn daughter, Harry would have blabbed anything and everything they’d wanted to know, just to save his friend and his unborn daughter pain or death. He’d have never forgiven himself if anything at all had happened to Sean or his daughter.

He carefully crawled to the edge when everything suddenly and unexplainably went quiet; he heard shouting a little way off. Their captors thought that they had gone down a level from what he understood of their shouting and all of them, every single last man and woman was rushing down to the lower floors. He moved then, going back to Sean and hoping that they could utilise this opening to get themselves out, only to be shocked into remaining where he was when the Hulk rushed into the room via the wall, smashing everything as he went.

 

“Bruce!” Harry shouted out hoarsely, leaning over the side of the roof space and waving. The Hulk turned bright green eyes on him and then grinned, holding a huge hand up and Harry rushed back to Sean and helped his friend over the little ledge, despite his terrified protests, and then he climbed onto that hand himself and before he could even get his bearings he was cradled to a huge green chest and was bouncing around like a rubber ball. He latched onto Sean and they held on tight to one another as Hulk ran with them both, hopefully to safety and before their brains were scrambled like eggs.

 

The Hulk smashed through everything in his way and Harry curled up in his hand, one arm clamped tight around his belly to protect his baby as he was lumbered around, Sean doing the same as they wrapped one arm around one another as well. Sean was whispering under his breath, chanting ‘oh god’ repeatedly under his breath like a mantra and Harry squeezed him tighter, hoping to comfort him.

 

“HULK! Did you find them?” Steve’s voice shouted from down below.

 

Harry sat up and held on as he was suddenly shifted downwards and Bruce opened his hand and Harry was looking at the Avengers team. He’d never seen a more beautiful sight.

 

“I thought you said you weren’t going to storm it.” Harry said as he lurched from the Hulk’s hand and all but fell into Clint’s arms, holding on tight as Steve picked up Sean as if he weighed no more than an empty shopping bag and carried him out of the building.

 

Clint wrapped arms around him and cuddled him, their cheeks pressed together and Harry just didn’t care.

 

“I’m so glad you came.” Harry said in a hushed whisper.

 

“Of course we came.” Clint said, holding him tighter and Harry just couldn’t let him go.

 

“Get him out of here, Clint.” Steve ordered, coming back without Sean. “Take the car and just go, get them both back to the tower, we’ll finish up here.”

 

Clint carried him to a car outside and he buckled Harry up and then ran around to the driver’s side, he started the car then then gunned the engine and Harry felt like he could breathe again for the first time since he’d realised that it wasn’t Clint who was knocking on his front door.

Harry turned to face Clint in the car and reached a hand back to hold onto Sean’s hand, his friend who was crying in what he suspected was complete relief and a delayed release of pent up emotions of fear, horror and fright. Harry felt like doing the same, but he held off on the tears for now, he’d cry later when he was alone.

None of them spoke until Clint arrived at the Tower and he got out quickly and rushed around the bonnet to help Harry from the car, also helping to support Sean as he stumbled out on wobbly legs.

 

“I know you don’t like it here, but I thought…well your house is a bit of a mess still. So I’d feel better if you stayed here until your house is fixed up…but if…I mean…if you want to stay in a hotel, I suppose that’s okay, I wasn’t thinking, I was just following Steve’s orders, I didn’t think to ask if it’s what you wanted, I’m…”

 

Harry pressed four fingers up to Clint’s lips, his thumb resting on his jaw, silencing his tirade.

 

“I don’t want to be in a hotel Clint, I want to be here, at least until my house is fixed up. I don’t want to be alone and we missed our date night.”

 

Clint nodded jerkily and he escorted him and Sean up to Tony’s penthouse floor, out of the bitterly cold night air and they found Pepper pacing the carpet between the seating area and the kitchenette.

 

“Harry!” She shouted as soon as she saw him and she clamped him in a hug. “Oh thank god! I was so worried, are you alright?”

 

Harry nodded. “They didn’t get to do anything to me or Sean, the chloroform wore off me before they expected it to, we weren’t tied up, we weren’t even in a locked room. I just got up and went walk abouts with Sean in my arms. I found a man talking on the phone, I waited until he’d finished, knocked him out, took his phone and gun, I called you and then hid up in a small roof space with Sean, I don’t think they expected us to be able to climb, they never even thought to look any higher than the floor.”

 

“I’m so glad.” Pepper said. “Let’s get you sat down, we still have that tea you like here and I’m sure we have some fruit here somewhere.”

 

Pepper went off on one of her tirades as she went into the kitchenette to find him and Sean something to eat and drink while Clint walked him to the settee and they both sat down, Harry pulling a silent Sean with him. Harry turned and cuddled into Clint and they held onto one another tight.

 

“I didn’t think I’d see you again.” Harry confessed softly. “It felt like it had been so long since I’d called you, I didn’t know if you were coming or not.”

 

Clint stiffened under him and pulled back, searching his face. He took Harry’s hands in his own and those rough, callused palms comforted Harry.

 

“I wouldn’t have left you there.” Clint told him, staring straight into his eyes, his face as serious as Harry had ever seen him. “If everyone else had decided not to go, though they never would have, I would have gone on my own to get you back if I’d had to, but I would never have left you there.”

 

Harry smiled and snuggled himself back into Clint, who was coming to mean more and more to him than just his baby’s Father.

His life seemed to be one disaster after another from the moment he had been born…no, even before he’d been born he’d been trouble with the making of that prophecy. He’d gone from disaster, to disaster, to disaster with the odd catastrophe thrown in for good measure too. He just wanted to be normal. He didn’t want to be a hero, he didn’t want to be a target, he didn’t want to be involved with all this fucking shit any more. He just wanted to be Harry; he just wanted to be free to live his life, with his baby and with the Avengers if they still thought of him as a friend, though they had come for him after all. Clint and Pepper at least seemed to still want him around, he just really didn’t want to be the centre of attention any more, he didn’t want to be the one always in the middle of the disasters, he wanted a nice, quiet life, with his baby, in the house he had picked out and decorated himself, with his friends, why was that so much to ask for? Why was it always him who was the target? He cuddled into Clint more as Pepper brought over a bowl of washed, prepared blueberries and three cups of tea. There was no way that he was going to be able to sleep tonight.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I told you I would be finished in time to update exactly a week after the previous chapter. I wouldn’t leave you lovelies hanging. This fic will only have a few more chapters left. I had to have Harry kidnapped again so that S.H.I.E.L.D could find the higher ups behind the mercenaries and thugs that are attacking Harry. Only with them gone can he finally have a happy, normal life with his baby, so I had to have him kidnapped one last time.
> 
> I think that’s it for now, the next fic up is Part Two of The Dracken Memoirs and then The Pride of the Lions, until then lovelies, enjoy,
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	18. Magnetic Attraction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last Time
> 
> His life seemed to be one disaster after another from the moment he had been born…no, even before he’d been born he’d been trouble with the making of that prophecy. He’d gone from disaster, to disaster, to disaster with the odd catastrophe thrown in for good measure too. He just wanted to be normal. He didn’t want to be a hero, he didn’t want to be a target, he didn’t want to be involved with all this fucking shit any more. He just wanted to be Harry; he just wanted to be free to live his life, with his baby and with the Avengers if they still thought of him as a friend, though they had come for him after all. Clint and Pepper at least seemed to still want him around, he just really didn’t want to be the centre of attention any more, he didn’t want to be the one always in the middle of the disasters, he wanted a nice, quiet life, with his baby, in the house he had picked out and decorated himself, with his friends, why was that so much to ask for? Why was it always him who was the target? He cuddled into Clint more as Pepper brought over a bowl of washed, prepared blueberries and three cups of tea. There was no way that he was going to be able to sleep tonight.

Chapter Eighteen – Magnetic Attraction 

 

The five other Avengers team members came back soot stained, sweaty, but happy a few hours after Harry had been driven to the tower by Clint. He was still on the settee, cuddled up with Clint, who was drawing absent patterns on Harry’s arm with his fingertips. Sean was fast asleep against the other arm of the same settee. Being under the effects of chloroform was far from restful after all, Harry definitely didn’t blame Sean for falling asleep. Now if only he could shut his own mind down long enough to drift off himself, but his thoughts were chasing one another in a dizzying circle and he couldn’t stop them as he analytically processed everything that had happened to him and Sean.

 

“We’ve been trying to shut down that warehouse for a year now, we did that and captured all of the people in that building for questioning tonight. There were a hundred and twenty-three of them, Fury is positive that we’ll get some answers now.” Natasha said.

 

Harry smiled tiredly. “I hope so; I don’t want to live my life in fear of opening my own front door.”

 

“Are you staying here tonight?” Tony asked.

 

Harry nodded. “If that’s okay with you.”

 

“Of course, you don’t even have to ask, consider this your home away from home; you can come and stay here any time you like, Harry.” Tony said. “You remember where your room is?”

 

Harry nodded.

 

“Right then, I’m off to shower and get to bed, I’m exhausted after the night of arse kicking.”

 

Harry watched Tony leave and then, after expressing how happy they were to see him unhurt and okay, the others followed suit and he was so glad that they weren’t fussing around him and weren’t surrounding him on all sides. He had a feeling that Clint’s sharp, poisonous glares had had a hand in that.

 

“Do you want to go down to your room?” Clint asked, shifting himself forward, to the edge of the settee and looking at him questioningly. “I can put Sean into a guest room too, so he’ll be a bit more comfortable.”

 

Harry shook his head. “No. I’m okay; you can go get to bed though, you must be tired as well. I’ll watch over Sean.”

 

Clint shook his head. “Are you really okay? You don’t…you look a little pale.”

 

Harry opened his mouth and then ducked his head. He sighed. “I am tired, really, really tired. I just don’t want to go to bed, I don’t want to sleep and I…I don’t want to be alone right now either and with Sean sleeping…”

 

Clint sat back from where he’d moved to the edge of the settee and he wrapped an arm around Harry again and pulled him to rest against his body. He picked up the TV remote and switched it on and turned the channel to some cheesy, monster movie from decades ago and they sat and they watched it, laughing quietly so they didn’t disturb Sean, who was right next to them or Tony, who was just a few rooms away from them. They stayed snuggled up on that settee together all night, until they finally fell asleep at about seven in the morning.

They were woken up by someone, who turned out to be Thor, almost sending them flying as he sat on the same settee as them very gracelessly and very forcefully, jolting them awake as over six hundred pounds of muscle almost collapsed the settee under them.

 

“Harry, friend, I am very pleased to see that you and the babe are well!” He boomed.

 

Harry blinked blearily and stifled a massive yawn.

 

“Thanks, Thor. I’m happy to see you too. What time is it?”

 

“It is past the lunching hour.” Thor informed them. “Steve has kept you both a meal, but Jarvis has said that you did not get to sleep until very early in the morning.”

 

Harry forced himself up with Clint’s big hand on his lower back to help him as he cupped the baby bulge. The little mite within had woken up and was moving restlessly.

He made his way to the kitchen and he fell onto the food that a smiling Bruce handed to him. Sean was already awake and he was eating as well, but he kept looking at the clock and then looking to the lift doors.

 

“I can’t believe you got yourself and Sean up into that little space.” Bruce said as he watched Harry watching Sean.

 

“I forced myself to climb up there with Sean over my shoulder.” Harry said. “It was a good idea. We would have been found and recaptured hours before you lot showed up if we’d had to stay on the floor.”

 

“We had to plan a way into the building.” Bruce said apologetically. “There were some of us who wanted to just smash through the walls, but we knew that we couldn’t put you both at any further risk. It was a weapons factory after all, they had endless amounts of guns and ammo and we didn’t actually know where you both were. We had to tread carefully.”

 

“It’s alright, I understand that infiltrating that building would have taken time and careful planning. It seemed like days though, with the fear and the adrenaline, it seemed to take forever.”

 

Harry went quiet and he sighed as he ate some of his lunch. He was more tired than hungry, but he nibbled at it so no one worried needlessly about him.

 

“Are you okay, Sean?” Harry asked as he nudged his distracted friend.

 

Sean nodded. “They called Joe, he was sleeping this morning, they sedated him, but he’s been awake with the enforcers all night, so he needed his sleep, but they’re on their way now. I got the impression that they gave him the sleeping pills when he wasn’t looking as he didn’t sound at all happy on the phone. They were halfway across the city at the main enforcer compound, so it’s been a while since I talked to Joe, but they should be here soon.”

 

Harry cuddled his friend and they both ate little nibbles and when they were done they were ushered to sit down on the settee again and they were talking together softly when the lift pinged and a wild looking Joe stepped out followed by Luke and his team.

Sean let out a soft noise and stood up, he didn’t even get to take a step forward before Joe flew at him and grabbed him up into a hug, Sean wrapping around him tightly and Harry felt teary just watching them as Sean burst out into tears and clung to Joe tightly.

Harry was surprised when Joe turned and dragged him into a hug as well lifting him from the floor, with a bit more difficultly as Harry had two months of pregnancy on Sean. Despite him having a smaller than average bump he was still bigger than Sean was as his friend was only at five months gestation to his seven.

Joe held both him and Sean tightly and he just had to blow a raspberry on Harry’s neck. It made him giggle.

 

“I told you to stop doing that.” He complained as he was set back down on the floor gently. Sean was not put down and didn’t seem to want to go anywhere either.

 

Joe cupped Harry’s chin, smiling. “Thank you for helping Sean. I’ve been told how you woke up and how you didn’t leave Sean behind.”

 

“Of course not, he’s my friend!” Harry insisted. “Even if I’d hated him I wouldn’t have left him. I just don’t do things like that.”

 

Joe nodded and bent forward so that he could kiss his head, which made Harry blink a bit stupidly as Joe had never done such a thing before.

 

“I know, you’re too kind for your own good sometimes, especially after everything you’ve been through, but thank you for helping Sean and our daughter. I hope you’ll still be living next door to us?”

 

“Of course he will be! Because even if he moves now after this, we’re moving with him!” Sean said loudly and insistently.

 

Harry smiled as Sean glared Joe down furiously, silently daring him to say otherwise.

 

“I’m not moving anywhere. I bought that house, decorated it, set it up for me and my baby. I’m not going to let anyone ruin that and I’m definitely going to increase security, this will never happen again.” He said seriously. “That house is mine, for me and my baby, and no one will take it away from me.”

 

“We’ve cleaned it all up for you, we’ve got people coming today to fix the…ah, bullet holes.” Luke told him, grimacing as he mentioned the holes in his walls.

 

Harry nodded and he hugged Luke tightly. “Thank you.”

 

“I’m so sorry that we didn’t reach you in time.” Luke told him, very upset. “I’m going to be drilling my team, upping their training, putting them through all the advanced driving courses, everything I can think of to lower our response time. I’m just so glad that you’re alright.”

 

“You don’t need to. I’m fine. Sean is fine. It wasn’t your fault, it wasn’t your team’s fault. They were never going to stop coming after me, Luke. For whatever reason, they wanted me and didn’t care who they took down in their mission to get me. I’m safe now and the people who did this to me are in S.H.I.E.L.D custody. They can’t hurt me now, so don’t worry so much.”

 

“I do worry about you and every other Omega. I won’t rest until you are completely safe.” Luke insisted.

 

Harry smiled. “I’m staying here for a few days while my house is sorted out, but I’ll be completely fine and safe. I trust S.H.I.E.L.D to find out why whoever it was wanted me and if there are any other people after me. They’ll sort it out for me.”

 

“Keep my number on speed dial and I’ll keep your location flagged. My team will get to you sooner if there happens to be a next time, though naturally I hope you never need it.”

 

Harry nodded before he looked around the room, taking in the new members of Luke’s team that he hadn’t met yet.

 

“Is that Burne?” Harry asked distractedly as he eyed the insanely tall Alpha who was sharing looks with Clint, who was rubbing the back of his neck subconsciously.

 

“Yeah, come on, he’s been wanting to meet you since he took on Clint as his playmate.”

 

Harry laughed as he and Luke walked over to Burne.  Harry didn’t even reach his nipples and he had to crane his head right back to see his eyes.

 

“Hey there.” Burne greeted him with a wide grin, holding out a massive, spade like hand for Harry to shake.

 

“Hi. I just wanted to thank you and tell you that I think you do an amazing job.”

 

“I have the best job in the world.” Burne winked at him and Harry chuckled as he held a hand out to Clint, who came to him immediately and clutched at it.

 

“Is he behaving for you now? I could always leash him back up if you wanted.” Burne offered.

 

“No, there’s no need for that, he’s not an animal. But he understands now that I’m still a person, despite being a pregnant Omega, don’t you, Clint?”

 

Clint nodded and smiled at him, nuzzling his hair with his nose.

 

“I never wanted him to change who he was.” Harry said seriously. “I just wanted him to realise that the way he was seeing me, the way he treated me, wasn’t right.”

 

“I see that now.” Clint insisted.

 

Harry nodded. “I know you do. It’s why I keep saying yes to date night.”

 

“You two are dating now?” Burne asked them before he whistled lowly and Harry rolled his eyes.

 

“Yes we are, and it was going well too. I can’t believe we missed a night though, we were getting used to those fancy dinners.” He said patting his baby bump.

 

Clint smiled at him and Harry smiled back.

 

“You are alright, aren’t you?” Ollie-Jay asked.

 

Harry nodded. “I can feel the baby moving, Sean can feel his daughter moving and nothing happened to us in that building and no one hit either of our stomachs while we were fighting them off. I don’t think the chloroform hurt the babies at all and I just have a knot at the back of my head from hitting the mirror and this hideously bruised wrist from where I was disarmed.”

 

“You let yourself be disarmed, Agent?” Natasha asked and Harry couldn’t tell if she was playing with him or not.

 

“Knock it off, ‘Tash. He doesn’t understand your weird, backward way of teasing.” Clint told her.

 

“I still shot two people.” Harry shrugged. “I couldn’t move the gun from the second man to the third in time to stop him from pouncing on me and bashing my hand against the bath, my reactions have gotten slower with the heavier pregnant I get. The belly gets in the way of quick, precise movement.”

 

“I still can’t believe you climbed a stack of crates, with Sean, to a tiny, roof top crawl space.” Bruce said shaking his head.

 

“Neither could they, which is the only reason that Sean and I stayed safe and unharmed. They didn’t think we were able to climb in our condition, so they didn’t look any higher than the floor.”

 

“Thank you for struggling to get me up there.” Sean said softly. “You could have just left me back in the room you woke up in.”

 

Harry shook his head. “No. It was me they were after, not you; you wouldn’t even have been in my house when they attacked if you hadn’t wanted a chat before Joe got home. There was no way in hell that I was leaving you there when it was me they wanted, Sean. If I had been unable to get the both of us up to that roof space then neither of us would have been up there.”

 

Sean let out a soft, sobbing sound and suddenly Harry had his arms full of a pregnant Sean, who was crying and clutching at him, shifting continuously to try and hold him even tighter.

Harry held on to the taller man and he breathed in deeply to keep himself from joining Sean in the hormonal storm of tears and sobbing. The Alphas in the room were already uncomfortable enough as it was without adding to the uncontrollable sobbing fest himself, but it was becoming more of a challenge as he felt his eyes burning with the need to just give in and cry along with Sean.

 

“It’ll be alright.” Harry insisted gruffly as he pulled back from Sean and patted him gently. “We’ll be fine. S.H.I.E.L.D will find the people responsible and they’ll get answers and we’ll be safe and we’ll be just fine with our babies.”

 

Sean nodded and wiped at his eyes and then turned into Joe and cuddled his Alpha tightly.

 

“We will.” He agreed. “Joe’s not going to let me out of sight for the next year.”

 

“Five years.” Joe corrected as he cuddled Sean tightly. “I was so scared for you and the baby. I’ll call the doctor and see what he says; I want you to get checked out, just in case, my love.”

 

Sean nodded his agreement as his hand fell to his belly and patted gently.

 

“I can feel her moving, but I want to be sure that the chloroform didn’t hurt her. You’re going to get checked out too, aren’t you?” He asked Harry.

 

Harry nodded immediately. “Of course. I’ll be calling the doctor to get an appointment as soon as possible.”

 

“No need.” Steve said as he pulled Harry into hug. “Agent Coulson is waiting for you at headquarters with the doctor; we’re to take you there as soon as you’re ready.”

 

Harry nodded his understanding.

 

“Will you be back at the house later?” Sean asked.

 

Harry considered that, seriously thought about it before he shook his head.  “No. Not tonight. I think I’d feel better staying here for an extra night while the walls are replastered and I have new doors fitted.”

 

Sean nodded and took in a deep breath.

 

“We could always stay in a hotel for the night.” Joe told him softly.

 

Sean turned to him with big, imploring eyes. “Really?”

 

Joe nodded. “Of course, Sean. If you don’t think you can go back to the house while the work is being done next door, then we can stay at a hotel.”

 

Sean gave a wide smile to Joe and Harry turned and hid his grin in Clint’s chest, enjoying the strong arms that wrapped around his back and squeezed him tight.

 

“I’ll see you soon, won’t I?” Sean asked a bit unsurely.

 

Harry nodded. “Of course. I’ll text you later, I promise.”

 

“You can call to talk.” Sean said a little confusedly.

 

“You want me to call you when you’re in a lovely hotel room, alone with your Alpha?” Harry laughed. “I don’t think so.”

 

Sean blushed red, but he laughed too. “Okay, better text me.”

 

Harry nodded and he said goodbye to Joe and Sean, he said goodbye to Luke and his team and then after having a last full glass of water, he was taken by the Avengers to S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters for a check-up scan.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry endured the scan with Clint hovering over him. He was glad that Agent Coulson was there, even though the entire Avengers team had escorted him to his scan and he had to lie on the medical bed half naked with them all around him and watching curiously as the doctor scanned his bulging stomach, checking the growing baby within.

 

“Everything seems to be completely normal, the chloroform wouldn’t have bothered the baby.” The doctor assured him.

 

“So they’re both fine?” Clint asked.

 

“Harry is a little dehydrated and exhausted, but otherwise fine. The bruising is bad, but will heal and the baby is fine and still attached to the placenta.” The doctor said happily. “Harry, you need some rest and plenty of fluids and you’ll be as right as rain again soon.”

 

“Thank you.” Harry said softly with relief.

 

He was helped from the bed, helped back into his tee shirt and he was escorted back out, though not before Steve had handed him a bottle of water. He sipped at it all the way back to the Tower, just to stop Clint and Steve from worrying too much.

Clint wrapped an arm around his back and escorted him into the Tower and up to the communal living room. He was settled down and Harry rolled his eyes but he said nothing as he drank some more water.

Clint hovered around him, typically and Steve stayed close, but Thor was his usual jolly self, laughing at the TV programmes and commenting on them, which made Harry laugh and made Thor happier.

He texted Sean that he and the baby were fine, that he just needed rest and some more fluids and Sean texted him back an hour later to say that he’d been given the same diagnosis and that his baby girl was completely fine, though Joe hadn’t let him take a single step on his own, to or from the hospital.

Sean was snuggled up in bed in a nearby hotel, room service all around him, anything he wanted was offered to him and Joe was waiting on him hand and foot. Harry had a good laugh about that. Sean definitely deserved to be spoilt after what he’d gone through, even if he had been asleep through most of the drama. Waking up as he had, knowing that he’d been attacked, but not knowing where he was now or in what state, what was going to happen or what had happened. It was a terrifying thing to go through, Harry knew. He hoped that Joe was spoiling Sean rotten and was pampering him properly and speaking of pampering, he could use some time to himself to clean up, he felt grubby after those people had manhandled him and tried to kill him.

 

“I think I’ll go for a shower, if you guys don’t mind.” Harry said softly.

 

“Take a bath, it’ll be safer for you.” Steve insisted.

 

Harry sighed, but he couldn’t help but smile. “Okay, a bath then.”

 

“Stay there for now, I’ll run it for you.” Clint said and before Harry could argue, he was gone.

 

Harry huffed and sat back against the soft cushions. It seemed Sean wasn’t the only one who was being waited on hand and foot today.

Clint came back ten minutes later and told him that his bath was ready. Steve made him take a bottle of water with him, Clint told him that everything he needed was well within reach of the bath and finally Harry was allowed a bit of peace as he slipped into the warm bubbly water and he threw his head back and relaxed.

It took him five minutes before he had relaxed enough to start crying and only a minute more before his crying turned to full out, body wracking sobs as he let out all the pent up feelings and frustration that he’d been feeling since he and Sean had been drugged and abducted.

His sobbing trailed off into just crying some ten minutes later and then into sniffling and a bit of hitched breathing and though he felt drained, he felt a lot better. He calmed himself down and just sat in the warm water for a few minutes and then he cupped his hands in the water and splashed it over his face, washing away the tears and he started on washing his hair.

He felt more balanced and more himself as he went up onto his knees to wash his upper body, belly and groin, he scrubbed hard to get rid of the last couple of days before he stood up to wash his legs. It was difficult to wash both legs with his baby belly, but he managed it with a bit of twisting, before he rinsed off and relaxed back for a little while.

He was more level headed as he climbed out of the bath carefully and wrapped himself in the warm fluffy towel that Clint had left on the heated towel rack. It was cold out of the warm water though, even with the warm towel, so he didn’t linger too long as he quickly rubbed himself dry and dressed himself in the thick, warm pyjamas that Clint had laid out for him.

He was very sleepy now, but he made his way back to the communal living room before he slipped away to his bedroom. He wanted sleep, but he didn’t want to be alone either. It was a dilemma.

 

“There you are, that must have been the longest bath in history.” Tony teased him.

 

Harry looked at the clock on the wall and smiled as he realised he’d been in the bath for almost two hours.

 

“I don’t think you understand exactly how difficult it is to wash and bathe when seven months pregnant.”

 

“Thankfully I never have to find out.” Tony retaliated and Harry’s grin widened.

 

Harry could see exactly how desperately Clint wanted to get up and come to him, but he was restraining himself which was making his body tight and rigid. He sighed and waddled his way to the settee and he sat himself next to Clint, snuggling into his side, smiling as Clint’s arms immediately wrapped around him and squeezed before the arm in the front lowered to press against his baby belly.

 

“Do you feel better?”

 

Harry nodded. “Much. I’m just tired now. The lack of sleep is catching up to me.”

 

“The doctor did say that you were exhausted and in need of sleep, but do you think you could force something down before you go to bed? I made soup.” Bruce said with a smile.

 

Harry nodded and twisted himself so that he was lying more on Clint. He eased himself up so that he was still reclined on Clint, but was more upright and he accepted the deep bowl of soup from Bruce.

He was thankful that he only had to eat a bit of soup, he had missed a few meals and he’d only had a sandwich and a bit of a side salad for lunch so he was hungry, but he didn’t think he could handle eating anything more. He just wanted some decent sleep now.

Once he was finished Steve whisked away his bowl before he could even sit up and Harry could only roll his eyes as a fresh cup of tea was presented to him so that he didn’t have to move.

 

“I’m going down to my workshop if anyone needs me.” Tony said as he stretched, scratched at his shirt around the blue light of the arc reactor and made his way to the lift.

 

“Do you require anything more, my friend?” Thor asked loudly.

 

Harry suddenly blinked open his heavy eyes and looked around. He had been drifting off to sleep.

 

“No. No, Thor. I’m alright, thank you. You lot just go and do whatever you want, I think I’m going to go to bed now.”

 

“Do you want me to carry you?” Clint asked.

 

Harry considered it for a moment. He didn’t want to be carried, but he didn’t want to be alone. Perhaps this was the excuse he needed to keep Clint with him.

 

“If you don’t mind.” He said softly. “I feel like I’d stumble into something if I tried to walk.”

 

Clint took a moment to react, as he’d been expecting an automatic rejection. He blinked and then he almost fell as he hurried to stand up.

 

“Yes, of course I don’t mind!” He said quickly as he scooped Harry up into his arms and set off towards the bedroom. He ignored the others behind him who sniggered at his enthusiasm as he held Harry close to his chest, enjoying his warmth and the press of his pregnant belly against his torso.

 

They reached Harry’s bedroom far too soon for Clint’s liking and he placed him down on the bed and looked at him sadly.

 

“Well, here you are.” He said awkwardly.

 

Harry laughed. “I had an ulterior motive, Clint. I’m sorry. I didn’t want you to carry me, but I did want your company. I don’t want to be alone tonight either and I didn’t want the others knowing about it, so stay with me, please?”

 

“You know I will do anything you ask of me, Harry.” Clint told him seriously as he moved back to sit on Harry’s settee.

 

“Where are you going?” Harry asked as he propped himself up on his elbows to try and see him better.

 

“Here.” Clint said as he pointed to the settee.

 

“No, I meant I wanted you up here, with me.”

 

Clint’s eyes widened in genuine surprise. “Are you sure?”

 

“Would I honestly have asked otherwise, Clint?”

 

Clint rolled his lips nervously but he moved to sit on Harry’s bed and then he lay down with him.

 

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” Harry told him.

 

“I do. It’s just this is a little bit of a U turn, so it’s surprising.” Clint rushed to explain.

 

Harry nodded and he shifted until he was laying on Clint and he yawned.

 

“I just really don’t want to be alone after what happened.” Harry said. “I’m not scared per se. I’m just a little nervous because of the baby and getting Sean and his daughter into danger as well. I’d just prefer some company and as the baby’s Dad, you’re the natural choice, especially as we’ve been dating for the last few weeks and I’m rambling now, aren’t I?”

 

Clint smiled. “Only a little bit, but I understood you and I understand what you’re saying too. I won’t leave if you don’t want me too. You’ll have to kick me out, because I want to be here with you…and with the baby as well, of course.”

 

Harry hummed as he relaxed his body and he closed his eyes. He fell asleep very quickly, still on Clint who was combing his fingers through his hair slowly and calmingly.

He didn’t want to get up, he didn’t want to move Harry or go to his own bedroom. He liked this…in fact he loved it. Holding Harry close, feeling his soft breaths against his neck, having his hair tickle his nose, feeling his growing child…he didn’t want to leave.

He promised himself just five more minutes and then he swore that he’d slip out from under Harry, tuck him in and then go to his own bed…only he fell asleep himself before he could do any of that. He was just so comfortable and so happy to be here, holding Harry tight in his arms, breathing in his scent and feeling the swell of his child through Harry’s belly that he just fell asleep without meaning to, but he would never have regretted spending that night with Harry. He slept peacefully and without any incidents for the first time in a long while.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry woke up warm and relaxed. He squirmed a little as his baby made itself known in his belly and he smiled. Turning into the source of warmth, he couldn’t help smiling as he saw Clint, fast asleep on his back, still fully dressed.

It humbled him to know that Clint had stayed all night, just because he’d been afraid to stay on his own last night. That Clint had thought to stay with him all night just to help him sleep easier made his feelings for Clint come through all the stronger. He was coming to love this man and he hadn’t wanted to. Yet he still did.

Sighing, Harry rolled over to lay back on Clint and he stroked that soft, blond hair from his sleeping face. Clint looked tired and Harry had to wonder how long he’d stayed awake for after he had fallen asleep. Or perhaps Clint just wasn’t used to sleeping with anyone in the bed with him and Harry had likely been restless due to the events a few days ago, thus disturbing the man next to him as he tried to sleep too. After all Clint was a specialist S.H.I.E.L.D agent, the merest brush or shift could have had his body awake and hyper alert. It was a wonder that Clint had slept at all.

On the other hand though, Harry was touching him now and he wasn’t so much as stirring…unless Clint was as exhausted as Harry had been yesterday after his bath.

Harry sighed. He didn’t know these answers because he didn’t know Clint. He didn’t know this man and though they’d been on a few dates, they still didn’t know much about one another. It was time to sit down and really get to know one another and if they were seriously going to make a go of things, then they needed to open up fully to one another, which meant no more secrets.

Harry wondered how Clint would take the news that he was a wizard and their child could also be magical because of that. It was frightening to think of telling anyone this secret, but he couldn’t hide it. He wanted to, Merlin did he want to, but if he was serious about Clint, then he needed to tell the man the truth, if not for their relationship, then for their shared child, who could be just as magical as himself.

He swallowed and buried his face into Clint’s side. He had moved here to get the hell away from the wizarding world and the upsetting, horrific memories that it had caused for him, but then he’d never imagined that he’d have been kidnapped, tortured, impregnated and then forced under the protection of the Avengers. Why was it so much to ask to just have a quiet life?

 

“Are you alright?”

 

Harry looked up at Clint’s sleep gruff voice and he smiled as he made contact with those sleepy blue eyes.

 

“I’m alright, just thinking a bit too hard. Did you sleep alright? I didn’t mean to keep you up.”

 

“I slept fine. I went to sleep just a bit after you did and I didn’t wake up once. I could have done without being fully dressed though.”

 

Harry smiled. “I could have done with stripping off a few layers, I don’t usually sleep in full pyjamas. I didn’t mean to fall asleep so quickly. I was just really tired.”

 

“I know, you needed your sleep. What time is it now?”

 

“Early. It’s not even seven in the morning yet.”

 

Clint groaned and forced himself up. “I was supposed to meet ‘Tasha in the gym to spar over an hour ago.”

 

Harry chuckled. “She’s going to kick you off of the roof.”

 

Clint snorted. “If I let her.”

 

Harry laughed outright at that and stifled a yawn. He sat up himself and rubbed at his gritty eyes.

 

“You look like you could do with going back to sleep.”

 

Harry grunted. “I’m already awake now. I’ll take a nap in the afternoon if I get too tired, but I’m alright for now.”

 

“Do you want a shower?”

 

Harry shook his head. “No. I don’t even want to get dressed.”

 

“Stay in your pyjamas then. No one will dare say a word. Well, no one but Tony, but he will never change.”

 

“Steve will immediately jump on me if I stay in my pyjamas.”

 

“I’ll protect you from Steve, I promise.”

 

Harry smiled and stood up, placing a supporting hand under his belly bump before stretching. Clint touched his lower back and stroked it softly as Harry almost blinded himself with his stretching.

 

“Better?” Clint teased him.

 

Harry nodded and he didn’t even bother to comb his hair before he left his bedroom.

 

“Hold on a sec, let me just change my clothes and I’ll be back.” Clint said as he walked into his own bedroom.

 

Harry stopped in his tracks and then slipped into Clint’s bedroom after the blond. He hadn’t been in there before, so he was naturally curious.

It was set out much like his own…only there was more stuff lying around and Clint had two more dressers in his room than he did, but Clint was very neat and clean…orderly. Everything was in its place and there was no clutter. There were no photographs out on display either.

He couldn’t help but look when Clint came back into the room in a fresh pair of jeans and went digging for a new shirt in one of his dressers. Clint sorted out his clean shirt and then he undressed himself and Harry whistled as Clint’s muscled back was exposed to him. The blond looked over his shoulder, arms still trapped by his tee shirt and his face coloured a little.

 

“Now that is a good look, stay like that for a minute.” Harry said with a grin as he stared at Clint.

 

He moved forward, touched that muscled back and he gave a quick kiss to the nearest cheek.

 

“Come on or we’ll be late for breakfast.” Harry called out over his shoulder to the stunned man.

 

He was halfway towards the lift before Clint caught up with him and an arm wrapped around his waist and squeezed. Harry couldn’t prevent himself from smiling.

Bruce was already making toast and preparing bowls of fruit when they arrived and it seemed Steve had already eaten as he was reading a newspaper with empty plates and bowls beside his hand.

 

“Where were you this morning?” Natasha asked Clint. “We had a sparring date.”

 

“I slept in. Sorry, ‘Tasha. I’ll make it up to you.”

 

“You’d better. I woke up early and waited for you for forty minutes.”

 

Clint gave her a wide grin and he shoved her as he walked past. “I didn’t mean to sleep in.” He insisted.

 

“No, then why did you?” Tony asked as he walked across the living room from his bedroom. “Does it have anything to do with our very pregnant Agent Potter?”

 

“Yes, it does.” Clint replied easily and unashamedly as he sat next to Harry and touched his shoulder.

 

“We’re dating, Tony. I’m having Clint’s baby. Why shouldn’t we spend the night together?”

 

The look on Tony’s face had Harry regretting his words and speaking again before Tony could say anything.

 

“I’m heavily pregnant. Whatever you’re thinking, it didn’t happen. We just slept.” Harry explained as he nibbled on some fruit.

 

Tony deflated a little, but he still looked far too happy.

 

“Are you feeling better today?” Steve asked as he folded the newspaper down and placed it on the table.

 

Harry nodded. “Much better. The bath yesterday helped relax me and I got a good, decent amount of sleep. So I feel better. Of course hearing that Sean and his daughter are going to be alright helped too. I was worried because he’s had worries about his pregnancy.”

 

“Are you going to see him today?”

 

Harry shook his head. “No, not today. He’s going to spend the day with Joe and I want to just slouch around in my pyjamas. The doctor said I needed to rest, so that’s what I’m going to do.”

 

“Really?” Steve asked with a surprised lilt and Harry huffed.

 

“This is my baby. Believe it or not the very last thing I want is to put my baby in harm’s way, even from myself. The abduction has unsettled me, I must admit. It has to be the use of chloroform and not knowing if it would have any effect on my baby. I’m still feeling a little unsettled, so while the doctor has told me to rest, this time at least, I will do as suggested because the chloroform was an unknown factor. I don’t know if it will have any effect later, or if I push myself, so I’m going to rest and catch up on my sleep and the missed meals.”

 

“I’m not doing anything today.” Clint told him. “I’ll stay with you.”

 

 Harry saw the look that Clint gave him, the slight widening of those blue eyes and he smiled. He’d told Clint twice yesterday that he didn’t want to be alone. He took that statement not as an attack on his independence, but as an offer of companionship for the day. He was grateful.

 

“We have a training exercise this morning.” Steve said a little weakly.

 

“Tell Fury that I won’t be there.” Clint said sternly. “Actually, no don’t, I’ll call him myself before you leave and explain, but I will not be there today. I want to stay with Harry.”   

 

The warm, grateful feelings that welled up inside him kept the smile on his face and he ate a little more gutsily after that, even managing a bowl of porridge that he liberally covered with raspberries.

Afterwards he moved to the settee and settled himself down with a baby book. He still took everything said with a pinch of salt, too many of them were contradictory for his liking, but he enjoyed this book because it was encouraging its readers to find the way that they found most comfortable, the way that worked for them as parents, instead of saying one way was the right way and every other way was wrong.

Clint had gone to make his call to Coulson or Fury, maybe even both, as the other Avengers got themselves ready for their training exercise and Harry watched them fondly as they geared up and Tony strutted around with his Ironman suit in the form of a briefcase in his hand.

Clint came back and his face was neutral, Harry worried for a moment before Clint said goodbye to the rest of his team and sat down next to him.

 

“Are you okay?” Harry asked softly as the Avengers declared themselves ready and left in the lift.

 

Clint grimaced. “Fury wasn’t happy, but as I said, I don’t care. You’re more important to me at the moment. I know you can protect yourself and that under normal circumstances that you like to look after yourself, but at the moment you’ve been unsettled, as you’ve said yourself. I feel better knowing that when you don’t want to be alone, that you’re not alone.”

 

Harry smiled widely and turned himself to recline on Clint.

 

“Thank you for understanding and I’m sorry that I’ve gotten you into trouble.”

 

Clint’s arm came around his chest and squeezed him. “I don’t care about any disciplinary action that awaits me when I go back. I’m highly trained as it is and I’m the best at what I do. One missed training exercise meant to promote team building isn’t going to hurt. If the operation we took part in to rescue you and Sean wasn’t enough proof that the Avengers are a real, integrated team then no amount of training will help.”

 

“I think you are a real team and I think, from observing you, that you all care about one another in your own ways. You’re all different people, radically different even, especially with Steve being born in a different decade and then being frozen for seventy years, that can’t be easy for him at all. You’re all from different backgrounds and walks of life, you’re all strongly opinionated and independent. Expecting you all to be the same and to have the same thoughts and ways of dealing with things is a fantasy, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t all work together or that you don’t work well together, because I think you do.”

 

They lapsed into a comfortable silence and Harry read more of his book as Clint stroked his thumb and fingers over Harry’s arm softly as he relaxed in thought.

 

“I thought you’d given up reading those books.” Clint asked some time later in amusement.

 

Harry chuckled. “This one is different. It’s not confusing me and it’s actually making me feel better. It says to find the way to look after the baby that suits me, it says that I will make mistakes, but that’s alright, because everyone makes mistakes and they won’t harm the baby or their development. It’s actually reassuring me instead of making me more afraid to give birth and have this tiny, vulnerable baby around.”

 

“I…I can’t wait for you to give birth, but at the same time, I am very nervous. I’ve never had to deal with any of this before, I’ve never even thought of being a Father before and now suddenly, here we are.”

 

“We’ll get through this together.” Harry assured him. “You need to get the baby something though. I’ve bought everything so far, I’d like for you to give the baby something. A teddy or a replacement blanket for the one that was ruined will do, just something personal that you’ve bought for them when they’re born.”

 

Clint nodded. “Of course and I would like to point out that you only bought everything because you wouldn’t let anyone else buy it.”

 

Harry grinned unrepentantly. “I’m asking now.”

 

Clint nodded. “Do you want something to eat? It’s about lunchtime. I think we have some more soup here.”

 

Harry nodded and he hefty himself up and he moved to the kitchen. He found the soup and put it on the hob to warm it through as Clint got two bowls out and set the table. It was all very domestic and Harry smiled.

 

“Let me finish that, you need to rest.”

 

Harry was ushered to sit down and Clint poured out two bowls of the tomato, vegetable and lentil soup. It was light enough for Harry to eat, yet filling enough to satisfy him and the baby.

 

“How long does training exercises usually take? They’ve been gone for near enough four hours.”

 

Clint swallowed his mouthful. “It can last all day sometimes. It depends what they’re doing, but if it has gone on for this long then it usually involved other Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. I’m glad I’m not there. Tony makes a nuisance of himself with the female agents.”

 

Harry snorted. “Why am I not surprised?”

 

“Because being a pain in the arse is a fundamental part of who Tony Stark is?” Clint asked innocently.

 

Harry laughed. “Exactly. But I still like him, even if he is afraid of me when I’m on a pre-heat.”

 

“Everyone is afraid of you when you’re on a pre-heat. You were rather frightening and I can see exactly why you are an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D when you’re that angry.”

 

Harry grimaced. “I’ve never felt that angry before…at least not since I was a hormonal teenager.” He added. “These heat periods are all new to me and frankly, I’m not fond of them. They turn me into something that I don’t like and invoke emotions in me that I don’t like.”

 

“It’s because your first adult heat period was so late.” Clint told him. “I looked it up and asked Tony and Bruce about it. You haven’t had time to get used to the new surges of hormones and as a result, your body isn’t as settled as it could be, but it won’t be that way forever.”

 

“That’s good to know.” Harry laughed. “I don’t think I could deal with myself behaving like that for much longer. I’m not used to these new heats. The suppression tablets kept them mostly under control, but since I can’t take them now until after I’ve given birth, I have to deal with it.”

 

“Will you go back on the tablets once you’ve given birth?” Clint asked curiously.

 

Harry nodded seriously. “Yes, as soon as I can.”

 

“Would you…” Clint stopped himself before he could even ask his question as his brain realised exactly what he was about to say and how it might sound.

 

“What?” Harry asked curiously.

 

“Nothing. It doesn’t matter.” Clint assured.

 

“No, tell me. If we’re going to make this work, Clint, then we need to be honest with one another. Tell me what you were going to say. Please.”

 

“I was just going to ask if you would consider more children at a later time. Then I realised how presumptuous it sounded.”

 

Harry chuckled. “Let’s see how I handle this one first. If I’m no good and can’t cope then there’s no point in having another one. If we do a good job, then maybe, in several years when we’ve gotten to know one another properly and we’ve actually figured out how to have sex in normal circumstances and I’ve had ample time to recover from this pregnancy _and_ we’ve assessed how we are as parents then we can talk about more children, okay?”

 

Clint grinned widely and nodded his head. “That sounds perfect.”

 

Harry shook his head as he picked up the bowls and washed them up.

 

“Do you think Thor would behave if I bought a dishwasher in the house? I still want you guys to visit, but if he’s going to smash all of my appliances up…”

 

“He can be trained. You should have seen him with the microwave when he first came to Earth. Every time it beeped he smashed it up with Mjolnir or sent bloody lightning at it and fried the damn thing. We kept telling him that it was just warming things up and eventually he understood. We had a harder time with the dishwasher, but he’s getting much better.”

 

Harry nodded. “The only thing that house didn’t have was a dishwasher. I want one.”

 

“Find the one you want and we’ll get it. We’ll even keep Thor away from it until he understands it’s just cleaning the dishes, not eating them.”

 

Harry laughed and left the bowls in the drainer and turned to Clint who hugged him. He laid a hand on Harry’s belly and rubbed.

 

“How is the baby today?”

 

“Alright as far as I can tell. The baby’s been active and has bounced around a bit this morning, but at the moment, I think its sleeping.”

 

“Maybe you should catch a nap while you can then.”

 

Harry wholeheartedly agreed. He settled back onto the settee and he laid himself down. It took several minutes, but he did eventually drop off to sleep. Clint didn’t join him, but he was very close by and it reassured Harry enough to relax and fall sleep.

Clint cleaned, serviced and restrung his bow in the chair close to Harry and he watched him almost silently and he caught himself smiling when Harry either shifted or snuffled in his sleep. He was completely in love and he couldn’t help himself. He was so glad that he and Harry had worked things out. They had some more things to talk about and sort through, of course. But things were much better now than they had once been and it had taken them a while to get where they were and a lot of aggravation as well, but he had a feeling that they were on the right track now and he was definitely toeing the line with his behaviour.

Harry was more than worth it and he hoped that when they came to the end of the awkward, painful past feelings, that Harry would think that he was worth it too. He wanted nothing more than a family now that it had been thrust into his face so abruptly, even in the controversial way that it had come about. He wanted Harry and he wanted their baby and he hoped, that given time and a lot of work at their relationship, that he and Harry could give their first child a sibling or two in the future. He smiled as Harry shifted again on the settee, his baby belly a gorgeous curve protruding outwards. He loved the man sleeping a few feet away from him and he couldn’t wait for Harry to be his Omega truly and he couldn’t wait for their baby to be born. He was willing to do absolutely anything and everything, because he wanted it so very much and he had no intentions of giving up on Harry. He wanted Harry, he wanted their baby and he wanted Harry to want him as well. Now that it was within his grasp, he wanted a proper family of his own.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I know it’s been a while, but I honestly never meant to leave it for this long. I wanted it done and finished, but my plans never work out as I want them too. Especially not when I started my new fic, The Beguile and Devotion of a Black Heir. I just wanted to get several chapters up for that fic while it was new to start it off, but it sort of exploded and took off and before I knew what was going on, it had been half a year since I last updated. There are only a few chapters left now, so I’m hoping to find a good balance between Damaged Bodies, Black Heir and Rise of the Drackens.
> 
> I believe that that’s all for now, The Black Heir is next on my update list and that’ll be next week now, so until then, I hope that you lovelies have enjoyed reading this chapter,
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	19. Tentative Confessions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last Time
> 
> Harry was more than worth it and he hoped that when they came to the end of the awkward, painful past feelings, that Harry would think that he was worth it too. He wanted nothing more than a family now that it had been thrust into his face so abruptly, even in the controversial way that it had come about. He wanted Harry and he wanted their baby and he hoped, that given time and a lot of work at their relationship, that he and Harry could give their first child a sibling or two in the future. He smiled as Harry shifted again on the settee, his baby belly a gorgeous curve protruding outwards. He loved the man sleeping a few feet away from him and he couldn’t wait for Harry to be his Omega truly and he couldn’t wait for their baby to be born. He was willing to do absolutely anything and everything, because he wanted it so very much and he had no intentions of giving up on Harry. He wanted Harry, he wanted their baby and he wanted Harry to want him as well. Now that it was within his grasp, he wanted a proper family of his own.

Chapter Nineteen – Tentative Confessions

 

Harry walked around his home, Clint close on his heels, following him, just in case. He didn’t know how he would have acted or reacted when he was on his way here. He didn’t know what he was expecting. It looked like his house, it _was_ his house. It was stupid of him to expect bullet holes or blood splatters when he knew it had all been repaired and cleaned up for him.

He went up the stairs and to his bedroom and he looked into the en suite, where everything had happened, and he felt nothing as he looked around. Everything was clean and everything was normal. It was as if that day had never happened and he took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly, calmly.

 

“Are you alright?” Clint asked him softly.

 

Harry nodded. “I’m fine. I don’t know what I was expecting, but everything is just…normal.”

 

“Is normal good?” Clint questioned.

 

Harry nodded. “Normal is brilliant. I like normal.”

 

Clint smiled and slipped an arm around his waist. “I’m glad that you can still see this house as your home.”

 

Harry smiled and looked up at Clint. “It is still my home. It helps that they never set foot in my baby’s nursery too. At least they never sullied that one special area. Though they ruined the baby blanket I bought. It was on the back of the settee downstairs. It had a bullet hole through it and blood covering it.”

 

Clint grimaced as he remembered the S.H.I.E.L.D agent holding out the ruined blanket to Harry. He was glad that Harry was completely unaware of the professional cleaning job that had been taken out in this house. Or the dirty boot prints that they’d found in the nursery. As far as he was concerned, and everyone else was concerned for that matter, Harry didn’t ever need to know about it. It was over and done with now and no one would ever be hurting Harry again. He swore that on his life, he’d had enough of it

 

“I’ll get you a new one, I promised that I would. You said the baby needs something from me, I’ll get a new blanket that I’ve given a lot of thought to.”

 

The smile that Harry gave him for saying that made his knees go weak. He held Harry tighter around his waist and flexed his fingers against Harry’s bump, feeling the baby within kick at his palm.

 

“We need to talk, Clint. There are some things that I need to tell you.” Harry said suddenly and out of the blue. “The kitchen might actually be the best place for this.”

 

“Are you alright?” Clint asked worriedly. “Have I done something wrong?”

 

Harry shook his head and smiled to reassure him. “No, you haven’t done anything wrong and yes, I’m alright. You don’t have to look so scared, but there are some things from my past that I want you to know about if we’re seriously going to make this work. There’s a reason that I’m living in America and not Britain anymore. There are reasons that I left, reasons I never wanted anyone to know. I always kept to myself, I didn’t want any friends, I didn’t want anyone coming so close to me. I wanted it that way, but now…well I can’t exactly hide it for any longer if we’re going to try for a real relationship and have a baby together.”

 

“Do you want the others here as well?” Clint asked.

 

Harry shook his head. “No. I want to tell just you first, you’re the one I’m trying to have a relationship with after all, you’re the one I’m having a baby with. So you first and then, if you react positively, then everyone else later.”

 

Clint nodded and he helped Harry back down the stairs and he watched as Harry made tea for the both of them. He sat at the table and was a little dismayed when Harry sat opposite him, not next to him.

 

“What did you want to say?” He asked. His heart thumping in his chest.

 

Harry took a sip of tea, took a huge breath and looked him dead in the eye.

 

“Do you love me?”

 

Clint swallowed hard and he looked like a deer in the headlights. Of all the things he’d been expecting, it wasn’t this. He didn’t know what to do or what to say for the best. The very last thing he wanted was to upset Harry when he was so heavily pregnant and he feared that hearing the truth would do just that.

 

“It’s okay, that was very unfair of me to just blurt out, you don’t have to answer that. I think I can guess for myself from the look on your face and from your silence.” Harry sighed heavily. “Well, this makes things a little more difficult.”

 

“No! No, it’s just, I’m not sure what you want to hear or what answer will set you off. I don’t want to upset you and I don’t know what to say to make you happy. I just want you to be happy, Harry.”

 

“I want the truth. We are here to talk, Clint. We’re here to tell the truth, so I want to hear the truth from you. Do you love me for me or is it just about the baby for you? I’ll understand if it is, just please, tell me now so we can move on accordingly.”

 

Clint looked down at his lap and took several deep breaths. This was a situation that he’d never expected to find himself in, but he had to tell the truth. He did love Harry. He loved him and he would not lose him because of his fear at admitting it, if Harry got angry afterwards, then he’d deal with it, but if Harry wanted the truth, he was going to get it.

 

“I do.” He said to the table top before looking up and into those amazing eyes. “I do love you. I have for a while.”

 

Harry smiled so sweetly at him that it made his heart jump. He had been expecting anger after all.

 

“I love you too, you know.”

 

“Bruce said that it was your Omega genes that were making you love me, that once the baby was born then you wouldn’t want anything more to do with me.”

 

Harry laughed. “Bruce means well, but he’s not an Omega. He doesn’t understand as well as I do what it means to be an Omega. I have researched this to the back teeth, Clint. Omegas who only like Alphas because they are pregnant by them all say the same thing, the only thing they like about the Alpha in question is all to do with the baby, not the Alpha himself. Trust me when I say that I like you for more than just this baby or you wouldn’t even be in my house, let alone sat opposite me as we try to work out our future relationship. I wouldn’t be sat here explaining about my past, of which I was adamant that I wouldn’t even think about again, let alone tell people about, if I only liked you for the baby. I love you for who you are, please believe me when I tell you that. We had a rocky start, I know, but it was a confusing time, I was constantly afraid…being in continuous fear like that, feeling so unstable and always under threat, being in pain and unable to run away because I had a damaged leg, I felt trapped, cornered, so I lashed out like an animal. It made everything worse, so I behaved worse as a consequence. It took the intervention of the enforcers to get me back onto level ground, though the trip to my house for a few hours really, really helped to re-centre me. I do love you, Clint, you saved me, tried to care for me despite me being so difficult and hostile. I just…looking back at it all now, I can’t believe how I was behaving, but at the time, I felt completely justified in my actions. It was easy to make you my target when I was feeling so confused and angry and hurt. It made me feel better and that was totally unacceptable.”

 

Clint looked much happier at that and it made Harry smile. He’d had no idea that Clint had been worried about him only liking him because of their shared baby. If he had then he would have laid those concerns to rest a long time ago.

He knew himself, he knew his own mind, he would not be trying to sort out a future for himself and Clint if he had any doubts at all that he wouldn’t care for Clint after the baby was born. He had come a long way since first being impregnated, he’d come to realise a lot about himself, about the Avengers and the world that he lived in now and he understood that what had happened to him had been an accident. Clint hadn’t meant to mate him, hadn’t meant to impregnate him, but he had and he had been more than thoroughly punished for doing as such over the last several months. But despite everything, he loved this man for more than just the baby growing inside of him and he knew it, otherwise he wouldn’t even be trying to make their relationship work.

Now that he’d been told straight up that Clint did in fact love him and those budding feelings had all been let out and exposed to the world, it was time to reveal some of his biggest, deepest secrets. Hopefully when he was done, Clint was even still talking to him, but this had to be done. The chances that their baby had magic like he did were incredibly high. He had to tell Clint now and hope for the best, because he would not expose his baby to someone who would be either fearful or hateful towards them because of their magic, he’d had enough of that himself with the Dursleys.

If Clint couldn’t handle this, then he’d try to get him more comfortable with the idea within the next few months, if he failed with that or Clint became in any way hateful or violent, then he’d pack up and he’d leave, quickly. He’d go a lot further than just a few blocks away as well, he wouldn’t use his real name on the deeds of his next house and he’d ward it heavily so that he and his baby would never be found. It would kill him to leave Clint and the others who were rapidly coming to mean so much to him, but he couldn’t put his baby at risk, he wouldn’t expose his baby to anyone who acted like the Dursleys had with him and he would not stay anywhere that he and his baby were in any sort of danger.

 

“How strange, is strange for you, Clint?” Harry asked.

 

Clint blinked and pulled a thoughtful face, taking the question as a serious matter, which Harry liked. “I had Loki take over my mind with a glowing sceptre and then I fought in a battle with aliens that wanted to enslave the Earth, Harry. How can things get much stranger than that?”

 

Harry smiled wryly and he looked down at his hands. A larger pair cupped them, holding them firmly, offering support and comfort. Harry took strength from Clint and he decided to bite the bullet and just say it, though he was going to try to break the news into easy to digest pieces instead of just blurting it out of the blue. The chances were that Clint would not react well to having it shouted out into his face, Harry doubted anyone would react well to that, but if he took the time to explain it as best as he could first, he might have more luck.

 

“I was born different to most other people, Clint. I’m human!” He assured the man opposite him as Clint’s blue eyes widened comically. “I am human. I’m an Omega human, but I’m a different sort of human.”

 

“Okay, is this a…genetic difference?” Clint asked seriously.

 

Harry nodded with a smile, liking that Clint was thinking this through intelligently, like the Agent that he was trained to be.

 

“Yes, I got this difference from my Mum and Dad, who both also had this genetic difference, but Clint, there is every chance that our baby will take this genetic difference from me, despite you not having it. It’s a very, very strong gene. The chances that our baby will also have this gene is at least ninety percent, hell, maybe even more. There’s no stopping it or getting rid of it. It’s a part of who we are, we’re born this way and there is nothing that we, or anyone else, can do about it.”

 

“Is it…is it dangerous? Harmful? Is that why you didn’t want anyone to mate or bond to you? So that you wouldn’t pass on this genetic difference to any babies you’d have? Are you going to be okay? What is it?”

 

“It’s not a dangerous gene, it isn’t harmful, it won’t shorten our lifespan, in fact it’s quite the opposite! It just makes us, well, different to the vast majority of people who live here on Earth and it has nothing to do with why I didn’t want to mate or bond to anyone, that was purely a decision based on my mentality and personal preference, not because of my genetics.”

 

Clint took a calming breath and he nodded. “Okay. I can deal with this information. What is it that makes you, and possibly our baby, different?”

 

“I have magic, Clint.” Harry said softly, watching Clint’s reaction and trying to read what the Alpha would say or do next.

 

“Magic?” Clint finally repeated in a voice that was barely above a whisper.

 

Harry nodded. “It’s how I managed to escape the explosion in my previous house. I know, and I suspect that everyone else does too, that I wouldn’t have had the time to get out of that house before the C4 bomb was detonated. I used magic to get myself out. It’s how I managed to keep myself and Sean safe in that compound. There’s no way that I could have picked Sean up in this condition. No, I used magic to help me carry him and magic to conceal us so that those who had taken us couldn’t find us.”

 

“Magic like Loki’s sceptre?”

 

A hard edge had entered Clint’s voice and Harry tensed his body.

 

“No. My magic doesn’t come from an object, Clint. I was born this way, as my parents were born with the gene, as our baby could be born with magic too.”

 

“Loki was born with magic as well.”

 

Harry breathed out deeply. “I understand that this is difficult for you to absorb, that it brings about painful memories for you that you’d rather not think about, but please stop comparing me to Loki. I am not insane, I am not a cruel person who wants to rule the world. Just because we both have magic, does not mean that we’re the same person or have the same thoughts or ideals. You might as well try and say that we’re the same just because we both have black hair! Our magic doesn’t make us evil people, that was all Loki and his own thoughts and mentality. I’m a different person and I would appreciate it if you actually realised that instead of trying to compare us together. It’s very insulting.”

 

“Why didn’t you say anything before?” Clint demanded.

 

“Do you have any idea how much trouble I could get into for telling you now?” Harry asked back calmly, trying to keep control of his awakening anger. If he got angry and started shouting then it would only serve to feed Clint’s anger and then this entire situation would rapidly explode out of control. He had to control himself and hope that by keeping calm that he could calm Clint down and get him thinking rationally about this instead of remembering his painful past experiences with magic. Harry cursed Loki for making an already difficult situation that much worse.

 

Clint blinked. “You could get into trouble for telling me?”

 

Harry nodded. “I’m not the only one born with magic and it’s not a gene that’s exclusive to me or my family. There are thousands of magical people living in Britain alone. There aren’t too many of them in America, the Salem witch trials frightened them all away, not everyone knew how to cast the spells to save their lives if by some chance they were caught. There are strict laws to govern us and to keep us safe though, the most serious of which is the Statute of Secrecy. We have a government, hospitals, schools, magical law enforcement and a separate prison to keep everyone with magic in line. I really do not want to have my baby taken from me at birth and thrown into that prison for the rest of my life, Clint.”

 

“It would be a life sentence?” Clint asked with a frown.

 

Harry nodded seriously. “To tell anyone without magic themselves about magic, to reveal to them about the magical world or to expose them to magical creatures is a straight up life sentence, Clint and when they say life, they mean life. I’d be there until the day I died. I could get into serious trouble for telling you, but it is acceptable to tell a serious partner about magic and as we are having a baby, this instance might be overlooked if everything goes well. I told you about this because I don’t want to lie to you, I don’t want our relationship to be based on lies. I love you and I want a future with you, the only way I could see that happening was if I told you the truth. If I shared some of the biggest, deepest secrets that I’m hiding from you and from everyone else. Not even S.H.I.E.L.D knows about my magic, Clint. They have no clue that Earth has magical people as well, at the moment they think it’s just an Asgardian thing, but it isn’t.”

 

“So you aren’t some sort of lost Asgardian who is actually a thousand years old?”

 

Harry laughed. “No. I’m a human, I was born in a hospital in London and I am twenty-one years old. Though there are myths that our magic came from the gods of old legend, but that would have been millennia ago, even before Thor’s great-grandfather’s time. The legend behind magic is that a handful of Asgardian warriors fell in love with mortal women from Midgard, or rather Earth. They had children and those babies inherited their Fathers’ Asgardian magic. And thus magic was first introduced to Earth and to humans, as those children had their own babies and the magic was passed on another generation and so on and so on. But that’s just legend really, no one has a clue really as to how it happened. But that one theory makes the most sense, though until recently, as in Thor and Loki coming to Earth, people thought that the Asgardians were just myths as well.”

 

“You hinted that you’d have a longer lifespan? Or at least I think that’s what you were hinting at.”

 

Harry bobbed his head. “Most magical people live until they’re in their mid one hundreds. Average is about a hundred and sixty. But of course there are always exceptions. Some live until they’re well into their two hundreds, some will die naturally at a hundred and two and we are in no way immortal. We can be hurt, we can be killed. If I was shot through the head or heart, I’d die as easily as anyone else.”

 

“Why didn’t you get out of the…” Clint shut his mouth and Harry grimaced.

 

“Why didn’t I use my magic to save myself when I was first abducted?” Harry asked for him and he sighed. “You need to understand that magic can’t do everything and in certain situations, it won’t work at all. I can’t make money, I can’t heal the sick or solve world hunger. I’m just a twenty-one year old man, who lost everyone he’s ever loved or cared for, is currently pregnant, who has a few magic hacks to make life a little easier. You need to understand that magic without a tool to focus it is incredibly difficult to do, Clint. People a hundred years older than I am can’t use magic without a special tool to help them channel their magic. I didn’t have that tool with me when I was abducted, back then I never took it to work with me, it was too risky with the random searches and I wouldn’t be able to explain it away if one of the guards found it. So I always left it at home and besides, being tortured as I was…being in continuous pain, being starved and being that tired even before they abducted me and so messed up mentally to the point where I was seeing things that weren’t there and started talking to people who weren’t there.” Harry shivered as he was taken back to that awful place and he took great comfort from Clint when he took a hold of his hands again and started brushing his thumbs soothingly over the backs of his hands. “I never would have been able to use my magic in that situation, Clint. Magic needs conscious thought and a level of control to manipulate it to the will of the user and I couldn’t even think straight. I was blurring what was reality and what was just in my head, even if I did have the tool I needed to use my magic, there would have been no chance that I could have gotten myself out because I wouldn’t have been able to use it.”

 

“What tool do you need?” Clint asked and he was back to being tense.

 

“It’s not a sceptre.” Harry replied mildly. “Magical people here on Earth use wands, small enough to be inconspicuous to a degree and easy to carry on the body without alerting anyone without magic to the fact that we have them. Different people react differently with all sorts of natural woods and cores. The length and pliability of the wand also factors in, just the merest half an inch in the wrong direction can be the difference between being able to cast spells perfectly, or having them go seriously, fatally wrong.”

 

He stood up and lifted his shirt, pushing his jeans down to show the top of his long, slim thigh holster. He used his thumb to roll the top of the holster out of the way and he pulled out the slender, fragile looking stick of carved, polished wood and he laid it on the table in front of him.

 

“This is my wand. Supple, holly wood, phoenix tail feather core and its eleven inches. It works perfectly for me and it took me a while to find the right match.” Harry smiled at the memory of his first trip to Ollivanders.

 

“Can I…can I touch it?” Clint asked, staring at the wand curiously.

 

“Yes, this wand has been with me through everything, the best of times and the worst, as long as you don’t purposefully try to snap it, it’s very durable.”

 

Clint picked up the slender piece of wood and touched every ridge and played it over and around in his hands, staring at it, studying it.

 

“It looks like a carved, polished stick of wood.” Clint said curiously.

 

Harry smiled. “I’m sure it does to you, you’re not magical so it won’t react to your touch. It feels warm to me. It’s always warm when I touch it, it represents comfort and safety for me. I can protect myself with that polished piece of wood. I haven’t taken it off since I was abducted the first time. It’s why, when I was abducted the second time, I could hide myself a lot more easily. Most wands are quite long, so the holsters can only really fit on the forearm or the thigh, if they’re too long and go over a joint then the wand could easily snap with natural movement, so most people just keep them poking out of a pocket or even on a table close to hand, but with everything I’ve been through, I like keeping my wand on my body. The only place my wand can fit comfortably is down the length of my thigh, my forearm isn’t long enough for the holster to fit. That wand means everything to me and it is one of the only ways that I can protect myself in this condition as I can’t easily fight off an attacker in hand to hand fighting.”

 

“The attack on the Tower. Those men are still gibbering about red lights, was that…from this?” Clint asked looking at the stick of wood.

 

Harry nodded. “Stunner spells. It knocks out whoever’s hit with them for a length of time depending on how powerful the spell that’s cast is. It shows itself as a red light and it can knock a person off of their feet and again, depending on the power behind the spell, it can knock them back several feet before rendering them unconscious.”

 

“So they were actually telling the truth.” Clint smirked. “We’ve been putting them through all sorts of different psychological evaluations.”

 

Harry smiled a little guiltily. “I had to keep our baby safe. If I hadn’t been pregnant then I would have definitely fought with my body instead of with magic as much as I could.”

 

“Why?” Clint asked. “You have a weapon that no one else expects you to have, why wouldn’t you use it right from the off?”  

 

Harry looked down and then back up. “Magic holds a deep sadness for me, Clint. A lot of things have happened in the past that have given me a lot of bad memories and nightmares. As I said, there is a reason that I’m here and not still in Britain.”

 

“I’ve had my own share of nightmares, Harry. I can’t say that I understand about magic, but I understand about running from past memories.”

 

 Clint’s hands tightened comfortingly on his hands and Harry smiled.

 

“There was a massive magical war that started before I was even born. People went missing, they turned up dead, their bodies untouched, unblemished, no heart problems, nothing wrong with them at all, they just seemingly dropped dead.”

 

“I’ve heard about that.” Clint nodded. “It’s a medical mystery and affects only a small amount of people. No one could find a trigger for it or what was wrong.”

 

“They were killed with magic, Clint. There’s one curse, it leaves no mark on the body, inside or out, it just kills you, instantly as it wipes out the life force of the victim with no physical signs. There’s no protection against it, no counter curse, nothing that anyone can do. Those people didn’t just drop dead because of their genes or chromosomes, they were killed with that one curse. The war raged on, people fought on opposite sides. My parents happened to be on one side of this war, fighting against a man who called himself The Dark Lord. He wanted to rule the wizarding world as well as eradicate everyone who didn’t have magic, which is a massive majority of the world’s population. He had a group of followers who wanted the same ‘purified’ world as he did, but other followers were blackmailed into following him or cursed into doing it, much like how Loki controlled you with the sceptre.”

 

“Is that how your parents were killed?” Clint asked gently.

 

Harry smiled sadly. “When my Mum fell pregnant with me, she and Dad went into hiding, we have all sorts of wards and spells to hide ourselves. I was fifteen months old when he finally found us. One of my Dad’s oldest friends betrayed him, sold him out to save his own skin, so the Dark Lord knew where to find us.” Harry said, trying to keep control of himself, but still his voice hitched.

 

Clint moved then and came around the table to sit next to him, holding him close and wrapping his arms around Harry’s shoulders, letting Harry bury his face into his chest.

 

“He killed them both with that killing curse. My Dad first. He tried to give my Mum a chance to get me out of the house, he hadn’t even picked up his wand. He was unarmed and defenceless and still he went up against Voldemort knowing that he was going to die, just to give Mum more time. It didn’t work. Voldemort killed him and stepped over his body, he came up the stairs and he gave my Mum a choice. Step aside and let him kill me, or she could die like her Husband. She refused to get out of the way, she begged him not to kill me. Her last words to him were ‘Please, not Harry. I’ll do anything, take me instead. Not Harry.’ He killed her right in front of me.” Harry took a deep breath and wrapped his arms around Clint to comfort himself as he tried to suppress the tears he felt burning in his eyes. “She begged him for mercy, but he had none to give. He killed her and then he went to kill me as well, a fifteen month old baby. But because my Mother had willingly sacrificed herself, without any thought for herself or her own life, I was protected by her sacrifice. His curse hit me and rebounded upon him and he was temporarily defeated. I was physically marked forever.”

 

Clint looked at him at that and Harry pulled a sad face as he lifted his thick fringe to show off the lightning bolt scar on his forehead, cancelling the glamour charm that usually hid it from curious Muggles.

 

“It was where he aimed his curse. It’s a cursed scar. It…it has been a source of bad memories, torment and even pain and I can’t get rid of it. I can cover it up, but it’s always going to be there.” He said sadly.

 

Clint bent forward and kissed it softly, surprising Harry, but deeply touching him all the same.

 

“What happened to that man, Voldemort?” Clint asked.

 

“I killed him.” Harry answered tonelessly. “When I was eighteen.”

 

Clint said nothing, but he held Harry tighter. He didn’t understand how someone like Harry, a tiny, delicate looking Omega, could have killed someone at eighteen. Harry had been through a hell of a lot in his life. No one deserved what Harry had been through. No Omega should have been forced to do what Harry had done.

 

“The war started again in two thousand and four, when Voldemort came back with a magical ritual. I was just fourteen then. The wizarding world was plunged into terror, you couldn’t even trust your own family because you didn’t know if they were cursed or not. Everyone was asking personal questions to one another, just to make sure that they were who they said they were. It…it was a terrible time, Clint, the stress and the pressure was unbelievable.”

 

“Why were you even involved?” Clint demanded.

 

“Because some whack job made a prophecy that I was the only one who would be able to defeat Voldemort. Voldemort believed it, which is why he wanted to kill me as a baby. He didn’t want my parents, they were just in the way.” Harry said, one tear finally breaking free and falling down his cheek. “It’s always been about me, he was obsessed with killing me because of that prophecy and he wouldn’t rest until he had killed me. It turned into a kill or be killed situation and so I did what I had been trapped into doing. I killed him in a battle that destroyed the one place that I had called home, all of my friends were killed, I was almost killed myself. I couldn’t deal with the memories or the pain. I had no one left, no family, no friends, they’d all been killed because of one man and a prophecy. I came to America to find a new start. I didn’t want friends, I didn’t want anyone getting close to me, I just wanted to stay inside and wallow.”

 

“What made you finally join S.H.I.E.L.D?” Clint asked.

 

“I thought that I needed to get out a bit more. I recognised that it was unhealthy for me to stay inside all day, every day and suffer through the painful memories of the war and everything that I’d lost on my own. I thought getting an easy intern job would do me some good.” He snorted harshly. “Some fucking good it did me too! A year and a half in, I was abused, overworked, not eating enough, mainlining coffee, I still had no contact with anyone because my colleagues hated me just because I was an Omega and to top it off I was kidnapped and tortured because my lazy supervisor gave me all of his work to do!” Harry calmed himself down and turned more to Clint, touching their knees together. “I just wanted someone to talk to.” He admitted softly. “I was so alone. I didn’t have anyone to talk to and no one at work would even look at me and Agent Nasri just shouted at me all the time. Agent Coulson was the first person to speak to me like an actual person in two years. I just wanted someone to talk to, I needed human contact. I felt so lost, so isolated and alone. The war ruined me, Clint. It took absolutely everything from me. I ran from Britain because I couldn’t deal with the emptiness that had become my life.”

 

“You have me now. You have me and the guys, they all care for you too.” Clint assured him. “Plus we have our baby! We can’t forget our baby, this little one is going to need your undivided attention every single hour of every day for the next several months! You’re not alone anymore, Harry. You may not think you have, but you’ve moved on from the war now.”

 

“How can I have moved on? It took everything away!” Harry said angrily.

 

“It may have taken everything away, but you’re rebuilding something from the nothing and that’s a difficult thing to do, but you’re doing it and I think deep down you know that those you lost in the war would approve of you moving on.”

 

Harry swallowed and his fingers flexed into Clint’s shirt.

 

“I think we can stop our talk here for today. Thank you for telling me all of this, Harry. I understand a lot more about why you reacted in certain ways and why some of the things I’ve said or done have triggered your upset or anger. Thank you for trusting me enough to tell me about these painful things.”

 

Harry smiled and just held Clint closer. There was still a hell of a lot more to talk about, but for now, he’d done as he’d said he would. He’d told Clint about his magic, that their baby would most likely have magic too and he’d told him about the war that had brought him to America in the first place. Clint was likely to have questions once his mind digested what he’d been told, but for now, they were alright. Clint hadn’t gotten seriously angry, he hadn’t gotten violent and he’d listened and Harry had honestly never felt closer to this man. He sniffed hard and brushed his forehead against Clint’s shirt. He really, really loved this man and if Clint could accept all of him, as he was, scars, bad memories and nightmares, magic and temperamental outbursts, then he would seriously consider bonding to Clint. He smiled to himself, he really liked the idea of them becoming a real bonded pair, but only time would tell if it would actually become a reality or not. He had to give Clint time to get over the shock and digest the information first, then he’d see what he’d do from there.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry meticulously made sure that everything was ready for the birth of his baby. He made sure that all of the blankets he had were washed again and folded in the dresser drawer. He’d washed all of the little white clothes he’d bought and all of the nappies and wipes were safely stacked under the changing table. He’d washed and remade the cot several times and it was folded down and ready to receive the new baby.

He kept airing out the room and he tried not to clean it of dust too often. He knew all about the dangers and risks of being overly clean after all from the Dursleys and Petunia’s surgically clean kitchen that always stunk of harsh chemicals.

It was a rare day where he was actually on his own. Since the attack and abduction the other week he’d barely had enough peace to just sit and think, there was always someone there with him and if they weren’t there in person, they were calling him to ask how he was. Even Captain Luke and his enforcer team dropped by on him occasionally when they were off duty or just in the area.

The only one he hadn’t seen recently was Clint. It had been several days since he’d told the man about his magic and so far, he hadn’t heard from him again, but on the other hand, neither did S.H.I.E.L.D or the rest of the Avengers team know about his magic, so Clint had kept his secret to himself for now. Harry calmed himself by reasoning that Clint was just thinking everything through and that everything would turn out fine in the end.

He took a deep breath and made his way down to the kitchen so he could make himself something to eat. He was a little under a week away from being a full eight months pregnant and he was starting to feel down about some of the permanent effects of his pregnancy. The always sore ankles, the unending back pain and the continuous aches. He sighed, it was getting him really down and tired now, especially with all his other injuries too, left over from the war and from his torture and the two abductions.

He’d had enough of being pregnant, he just wanted to have this baby and go back to normal already. Five weeks, that’s all he had left to survive. He’d come through seven months and three weeks of hell, he could survive five more weeks, he was sure, but the effects of being pregnant for so long were now dragging him down.

He ate his sandwich and drank down a pint of water. It was a little boring just staying here all day every day on his own. His home was spotless, Sean had gone out shopping with Joe and he had nothing to do until a little later, when the Avengers were coming for a visit.

Rubbing his belly, Harry frowned as a painful spasm went through to his back. He rubbed at it and cursed his pregnancy, just five weeks, that’s all he had left to survive. He prayed that the baby came on his due date and didn’t go over, that would probably be his worst nightmare.

His phone rang and Harry answered it, happy for the distraction.

 

“Hello.”

 

_‘Hey, Harry.’_

“What’s up, Clint?” He asked as casually as he could manage, even though his heart was thumping in his chest. This was the first time that Clint had contacted him since Harry had told him about his magic. He was naturally very nervous and apprehensive.

 

_‘I just wanted to know if it was alright for me to come over before the others, so we can talk privately.’_

“Of course.” Harry answered.

 

_‘Alright, I’ll see you soon.’_

 

He tried to calm himself as Clint seemed a little distant and coming over before the others seemed a little ominous to Harry, but he sucked it up. Whatever Clint decided, he’d have to accept it. He couldn’t force Clint to do anything that he didn’t want to and if this was a deal breaker, then there was nothing that he could do about it. He couldn’t get rid of his magic and he couldn’t get rid of their baby’s magic either. If Clint couldn’t accept it, then there was nothing that he could do to fix it.

He sighed as he put the phone back in the cradle and he nervously fluffed up the cushions as he waited anxiously for Clint to arrive. It wouldn’t take him long.

He swallowed nervously and he steeled himself for the coming few hours. He swore to himself that whatever Clint decided, he would accept it with dignity and he’d allow the man to make up his own mind without guilting him into anything. He was going to listen and he was going to accept what was going to happen in these next few hours.

The door knocked and after a few deep breaths to calm himself, Harry opened the front door and smiled at Clint, who looked as nervous as Harry felt.

 

“Come on in, do you want a drink?”

 

“No, thank you.”

 

Harry took a very deep breath and shut the front door. It wasn’t a good sign to begin with. He went into the living room, rubbing his back hard.

He sat next to Clint on the settee and looked at him. He smiled, but it did come out a little strained and more like a grimace.

 

“You don’t need to look so worried.” Clint told him, scooting closer and wrapping an arm around him. “I’ve been thinking a lot this last week and I feel like I could kick myself for taking so long to think on something that’s not really something that should have taken so long to think about in the first place. Of all the things I’ve gone through and the strangeness that’s come about from being in the Avengers team, magic really isn’t something that I can even complain about. You’re not evil, you’re not remotely insane or even really violent or aggressive. You’re normal, completely normal, you just have magic.”

 

Harry felt like he could cry from relief as he threw his arms around Clint and hugged him tight.

 

“I’ve been so worried!” He admitted. “I promised that I’d accept whatever you decided, but I think it would have crushed me if you had decided to have nothing to do with us after finding out about our magic. There’s no way to get rid of it.”

 

“I wouldn’t want you to get rid of it, Harry. You said that it’s a part of you and you’re only alive because of your magic. I kept thinking about the day your house was blown up, before we knew you’d gotten out alive. I had nightmares for weeks afterwards about you not going up the stairs and finding the C4 wired up there, about you not getting out and being caught up in the resulting explosion. To find out that you wouldn’t have gotten out if you didn’t have magic…it’s all I’ve been able to really think about.”

 

“I would have died long before I even came to America without my magic, Clint. I…remember a few months ago, Bruce sat me at the table in Tony’s kitchen and gave me that psychiatrist bullshit?”

 

“Yeah, I remember. You’d seen so many people die, all those close to you had died and you got very upset and ran to your room. I wasn’t happy about Bruce upsetting you enough to make you that distressed.”

 

Harry sighed and played with Clint’s shirt.

 

“I told you about the war in our last talk, that was where I saw so many people die…it was carnage, the battle was held in the grounds of a school of all places and so many people, some of them just kids, died in the hours that the battle raged on. I was in the thick of everything, fighting, trying to survive, but I never mentioned to you how many times I would have died if I hadn’t had magic. True, I probably wouldn’t have been caught up in a magical war in the first place, but I only found out about magic when I was eleven.”

 

“I think you told Bruce that you would have died several times before you were thirteen. They couldn’t all have been between the ages of eleven and thirteen, surely?”

 

Harry shook his head. “The relatives that kicked me out when I was seventeen and I haven’t seen again since…remember them? They weren’t exactly the most pleasant of people.”

 

“Are you trying to say that they abused you as a child?” Clint demanded furiously. “Bruce had suspicions, but we couldn’t work out if there was any truth to it or not.”

 

Harry smiled wryly. “Funny enough they hated me for my magic. They couldn’t accept that I wasn’t as completely normal as they were, so they hated me for it.”

 

“Now I feel even worse for taking so long to come and talk to you again. I can’t believe someone would hate you at all, let alone because of something you couldn’t control.”

 

Harry felt so happy and he threw a leg over Clint’s lap and buried his face in his chest. His back spasmed again and he nuzzled his face into Clint to ride it out.

A large hand held the back of his thigh, very close to his bum, but Harry didn’t care. He just rested against Clint more fully as a muscular arm wrapped around his back. They stayed there for a very long while, Harry was far too comfortable to move and Clint was very happy to just sit and hold him. At least until someone hammered hell out of his front door.

 

“It’s already open, Thor!” He shouted out.

 

“You almost put the door through!” Harry heard Steve chastised.

 

“I wished to be sure that our friend Harry heard our arrival!” Thor insisted innocently.

 

“My neighbours heard your arrival.” Harry laughed as they came into the living room.

 

“You two look cosy.” Tony grinned.

 

“We are.” Clint replied.

 

Harry snuggled in tighter before kissing Clint and pushing himself upright.

 

“Can I get anyone drinks?”

 

“Coffee for me.” Tony replied. “Are you sure you can manage to get it?”

 

Harry glared at him. “I’m perfectly fine to get some coffee.” He said with a frown as he hefted himself up off of the settee and went into the kitchen.

 

He made several cups of coffee and two cups of herbal tea, for himself and Bruce, and carried them on a tray into the living room. Steve immediately took the tray from him and placed it on the low coffee table. Harry didn’t complain or even scowl, he couldn’t bend down far enough to get the tray onto the table without spilling anything and he knew he couldn’t, so he was happy for the help, at least just this once.

 

“So, we thought you’d like to know that several of those people from the warehouse spilled their guts about everything that was going on.” Tony said as soon as he got his mug of coffee into his hands.

 

Steve sighed and Clint rolled his eyes.

 

“You said you’d wait until everyone was settled!” Steve chastised without any real heat.

 

“I am settled.” Tony answered, waving the hand that wasn’t holding his coffee to show how relaxed he was.

 

“Harry isn’t even sitting down.” Steve told him.

 

“I’m fine.” Harry insisted. “Tell me what they’ve said. Is anyone else going to be coming after me?”

 

“No, no one else will be going after you. They knew that you knew about the warehouse and that you knew exactly where the S.H.I.E.L.D agents watching them were.” Tony told him. “We found a double agent in the warehouse…one from your own office.”

 

Harry sunk down next to Clint as his knees threatened to fold in on him and he took a breath.

 

“The agent saw Nasri bullying me and pushing his work onto me and he knew that I’d seen those reports.”

 

“Bingo.” Tony said with a point to Harry.

 

Harry shook his head. “I can’t believe that…it’s too…too…”

 

“Cheap, under budgeted, criminal movie-esque?” Tony supplied and Harry laughed.

 

“A bit. Who was it?”

 

“Agent Sampson.”

 

Harry’s jaw clenched. “He was one of the ones who was halfway decent to me, but even he groped me when I was on a preheat.”

 

“We never saw any sexual harassment reports.”

 

Harry sneered. “I always told Nasri about those instances. It figures that he wouldn’t have filed them properly, if he was even writing them down in the first place and not just doodling. He never looked particularly interested when I came to him to complain that my colleagues were making inappropriate gestures and remarks to me or that it turned into actual harassment when I was on a preheat.”

 

“I really hate that guy.” Tony said before drinking some more coffee.

 

“I hated him too. I hope to be moved to a different department when I go back.”

 

“Wait, you’re going back to S.H.I.E.L.D?” Clint asked.

 

Harry nodded. “Yes, of course. I’ll be going back to work a month after the baby’s born.”

 

“What are you going to do with the baby while at work?” Bruce asked.

 

“Fury’s already said that I can take the baby to work with me.” Harry said with a nod. “I’ve got my own office, it’ll be easy to take what I need with me every day and Agent Coulson has promised me that my workload is going to be normal for a junior agent and I’m going to start on half days for the first year after the baby’s born and then normal nine to five shifts after that.”

 

“That’ll be good. Getting yourself back to normalcy. If you can call having a baby normalcy.” Tony told him.

 

Harry smiled and placed a hand on his belly. “It’s normal enough.” He insisted. “I’m looking forward to getting back to work.”

 

“Do you not want me looking after the baby?” Clint asked as mildly as he could manage.

 

Harry turned and kissed him. “That’s not the issue.” Harry insisted. “The issue is that an emergency could be called at any moment and the last thing you’d need is being forced to stay behind while your team are out risking their lives because you’ve got the baby.”

 

“That’s all it is?”

 

“Of course. If you want to do things differently however, I’m open to options. Maybe for the first half of the week you have the baby and if there happens to be an emergency you come and bring the baby to me first and then go tackle the bad guy. I just thought that if the world is being threatened, then that’s more important. If there’s someone threatening the city again, then it’s better for you guys to deal with it before it gets to the point where me and the baby are actually in danger.”

 

“There is nothing more important to me than you or the baby.” Clint told him seriously. “I want to help look after the baby.”

 

Harry smiled. “Trust me, you’ll get plenty of opportunity to do that. As I said, I’ll be off work for the first month and on half days for the first year. You’ll see plenty of the baby and you’ll be the first one I thrust the baby onto when I want some time to myself or even just a bath.”

 

Clint smiled and pulled him back into his position resting against him. Harry shifted into a more comfortable position and he rested his head on Clint’s chest with a yawn.

 

“Did you miss your afternoon nap?” Tony teased him.

 

“No. I’m just always tired these days.” Harry replied. “I could sleep for twenty hours a day and the four that I’m awake, I’d still be tired. I’m ready to have this baby now and just have it all over and done with already.”

 

“Four weeks and four days.” Clint said as his hand rubbed at Harry’s belly.

 

“Until my due date.” Harry reminded him. “It would be just my luck now to go over my due date.”

 

“Don’t borrow trouble.” Steve told him with a kind smile.

 

Harry grinned. “It’s a little difficult not to when my track record is against me, but the pregnancy is getting me down a little. I’m not fond of being limited or unable to do things that I once found so easy. Getting out of bed is a struggle, getting off a chair or out of the bath is very nearly impossible without help of some sort, climbing the stairs, standing up for too long, walking too far. I just really want this over and done with. I’m ready for it to be over and done with.”

 

“Have you got everything?” Natasha asked.

 

Harry nodded. He and Natasha had been getting on better since the enforcers had gotten involved and the new S.H.I.E.L.D training which incorporated Omega agents had helped her immensely. Harry was willing to allow sleeping dogs to lie where Natasha was concerned and she was making an effort to understand him, so they weren’t grating on one another through misunderstanding any more.

 

“I’ve got everything I need and more and it’s all set up and ready too. If I wash those baby clothes or the cot set any more they’ll have holes in them before the baby’s even born.” He sighed. “I’ve got everything cleared away, I know where everything is, the bottles have all been sterilised ready and I’m so prepared that I’m getting antsy about the wait.”

 

“Maybe you should come to the tower until the birth then.” Tony offered. “I’m not one to get in the way of your hard earned independence, but if you need a distraction before you ruin several thousand dollars’ worth of baby paraphernalia before the baby’s born, my place is always open to you.”

 

“And ruin your expensive carpets when I go into labour in your living room?” Harry asked with a grin.

 

“I don’t care about the carpets.” Tony insisted. “I’ll just buy new ones. We’ve all come to like you, Harry and we want you to be safe and happy. With blueberry muffins.”

 

Harry laughed. “Oh so that’s the real reason you want me back in the tower. You’ve been missing my muffins.”

 

“My usual coffee house muffins pale so significantly to your own that I haven’t even been able to enjoy them. You’ve ruined me for muffins. I think on that basis you owe me muffins.”

 

Harry grinned and he relaxed in the company of these several people. He promised to make Tony muffins as he cuddled with Clint and he basked in this happiness. He was going to have to tell the Avengers team about magic, the war and what had happened to him soon, and by extension Fury and Coulson too, but for now, he was very happy and content to stay exactly where he was and luxuriate in the comfort of being with people that he cared about…it was nice having friends again after being so alone for so long.

He would never forget Ron or Hermione. Or Sirius, Remus, Dumbledore, Hagrid, Luna, Neville, Ginny and the rest of the Weasleys. They would always hold a part of his heart. They would always occupy a dark, sad portion of his mind and the memories that had all been tinged with the sadness of their deaths, but he was finally moving on.

Clint had been right, he’d been whittled down to absolutely nothing, he’d been bare bones, squashed underfoot and mistreated, severely unhappy, lonely and desperate for any affection. He’d been at rock bottom and he had stood up again despite the oppression and he had started to build himself and his life back up from that nothingness and there was nothing wrong with doing so. Just because he alone had survived the war did not mean that he had to spend the rest of his life in misery. He could be happy, he could have fun, he could have a life and a family of his own. It was alright for him to move on and that was what he was doing, with his baby and with Clint and even with the Avengers team. They were his friends, they weren’t going to replace the ones that he had tragically and prematurely lost, but it was absolutely fine for him to make new friends, to carry on with his life, to be happy. He realised that now. 

It had taken him being abducted and tortured and being impregnated without his knowledge for the track to be lain down and it had taken these several people, including the absent Pepper, Director Fury and Agent Coulson, to drag him down said track, often against his will. But he had made it down that track and he had come off the other end a stronger, happier person and it was all thanks to the guiding hands of the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. He owed them so much and he’d be forever grateful, now if he’d only give birth so that he could finally hold his saving grace in his arms, everything in his life would be absolutely perfect.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So this chapter is one of the last ones for this fic…I estimate that there are only going to be two more after this chapter and then we’ll be all done! Ready to post up some new Avengers crossovers, or maybe Supernatural crossovers, who knows, though the Bruce/Harry fic has definitely been ready to post for some months now.
> 
>  
> 
> That’s it for now, lovelies. I hope that you’ve all enjoyed this chapter, I’ll be seeing you soon with the next one,
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	20. Family Dilemmas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last Time
> 
> It had taken him being abducted and tortured and being impregnated without his knowledge for the track to be lain down and it had taken these several people, including the absent Pepper, Director Fury and Agent Coulson, to drag him down said track, often against his will. But he had made it down that track and he had come off the other end a stronger, happier person and it was all thanks to the guiding hands of the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. He owed them so much and he’d be forever grateful, now if he’d only give birth so that he could finally hold his saving grace in his arms, everything in his life would be absolutely perfect.

Chapter Twenty – Family Dilemmas

 

Harry had waved goodbye to the Avengers team some hours ago. He’d taken a warm bath to help ease off his back pain, but it was still affecting him and stopping him from sleeping properly. He slipped in and out of sleep, not getting much of it at all and hardly any rest either as he wriggled around on the mattress. It was four in the morning when he finally had enough of trying to sleep and not achieving it as he got himself up and went down the stairs for a cup of tea.

As he sat drinking the tea, he had little else to do other than think and he cursed himself as stupid when he came to a startling realisation. The pains in his back had gotten progressively worse over the course of the night and he was now, almost certain, that he was in labour.

He groaned as he realised that this meant that he’d been in early labour that afternoon, when the Avengers had been visiting him. He could have gotten them to take him to the S.H.I.E.L.D hospital then, all those hours ago when they’d all been right there!

He stood up and went to the phone, ranting at himself for not thinking more of his little back spasms. He tried calling Clint, but with it being four in the morning, he wasn’t expecting anyone to pick up, though he was surprised when his call went straight to voicemail. The same happened when he called Bruce, Steve and Tony. All of their phones were switched off. He had more luck with Pepper, whose phone was actually switched on, but he rang twice and both times, the calls rang out and went to voicemail after six rings. As the pains got worse, he had even called Sean in desperation, but again, as the same with Pepper, no one answered.

 

“You had to go and come in the early hours of the morning!” He hissed to his belly. “I suppose it’s better than going overdue, I guess. Now if only I could get a hold of someone…anyone!”

 

Harry had no choice but to call the hospital when five o’clock rolled around and he still couldn’t get a hold of someone. He couldn’t even get a hold of Agent Coulson.

The ambulance came silently and Harry was helped into the back by the calm and reassuring medics as he was coached to breathe deeply and as evenly as he could through the pain in his back as they made their way to the hospital. He was going to seriously maim Clint the next time he saw him for making him do this all on his own.

He tried to get a hold of anyone he could before he arrived at the hospital, but when he was there, he had to turn it off when he was taken to an examination room. The kind, calm doctor who came to see him pressed around the base of his spine and pushed a hand under his bump, very close to his groin, but the doctor’s focus was completely on the baby, so Harry held his snarky tongue. He was sure that it was only coming out mostly due to the pain and nervous fear of doing this all alone, but he’d gone through much worse in his life, so he didn’t say a word, he just sat and endured it all silently.

 

“How long have you had these pains?” The doctor asked him.

 

“They started at around five O’clock yesterday afternoon. I didn’t realise what they were, so I brushed them off as just being a part of regular pregnancy as I went into my eighth month. I’ve been having all sorts of aches and pains this last month.”

 

The doctor nodded and smiled. “Well I think I’m the first to congratulate you, you’ll be having this baby in the next hour. We’ll just get the anaesthetist down to see you and then we’ll take you to theatre. This baby is ready to come out.”

 

“Can I have an epidural? I want to be awake for the procedure.”

 

“Absolutely, it’s your choice. I’ll let the anaesthetist know of your wishes.”

 

Harry was moved to a small room that the doctor called an anaesthetic bay that was just off of the theatre and he sat and he waited a little impatiently as he rubbed at his back. It was almost a relief when a smiling woman entered the room with a small trolley and another smiling nurse, who was holding out one of the little hospital gowns for him to change into.

Harry changed behind a privacy screen into the gown that tied on the side, but had a square cut out of the back. He knew that was for the epidural. He put his clothes, and everything else that he’d had on him, into a plastic box which the nurse took from him.

He hopped back up onto the bed with the help of the nurse, who stood in front of him and directed him to lean forward and to relax. He was cautioned that things could go seriously wrong if he jumped or moved during the procedure and Harry assured her that he wasn’t going to move in the slightest.

He felt a slight pinch from the local anaesthetic that he was being given first, but he didn’t even shift his position. He’d been tortured, a small needle was absolutely nothing compared to that.

 

“You’re doing so well, Harry.” The nurse praised him and he managed a grimace in her direction as another rippling contraction hit him.

 

A bigger needle was inserted and Harry felt it in a sort of detached way. It didn’t hurt at all thanks to the local, the pain of the contractions was much worse, but again, it all paled when compared to the torture that he’d been through.

It all happened quickly, everything below his waist just went numb with next to no warning and he suddenly couldn’t feel his legs anymore. He couldn’t move them, even as he stared at them, he couldn’t feel them.

He was helped to lie backwards, the nurse getting him comfortable and she asked him if there was anyone that they could call for him.

 

“I’ve been trying to call several people for the last hour, they aren’t answering. They’ll know what’s happening and where I am though, I’ve left them messages.”

 

The nurse nodded her head and after making sure, once again, that he was settled, he was wheeled on the bed into the sterile steel and machine filled room and he relaxed himself down as a doctor approached him and suddenly, randomly, asked him if he’d felt anything.

 

Harry shook his head. “No, I didn’t feel a thing.”

 

“Good, then your epidural has worked perfectly. Now, this might feel a little strange, you’ll feel some tugging and pulling, but no pain.”

 

Harry nodded his understanding as the nurses put a blue screen over his belly to separate him into two halves. He couldn’t see his lower body or any of what was going on below.

He was just lying there, not feeling anything as he waited for something, anything. He could hear the doctors talking above him, talking to the nurses, but the medical jargon went completely over his head and he let it. He didn’t want to listen as they asked for scalpels and scissors.

He did feel the tugging and pulling, he frowned as it felt like they were being incredibly rough, but then a massive pressure was released from his body and it was a little shocking, but when he heard a baby wail wetly, he became anxious, even going as far as pushing himself up on his elbows to seek out his baby.

He watched as a red skinned, bloodied blob was handed off to a nurse, who rubbed his baby vigorously with a towel as the baby continued to wail at a high pitch and he watched as the baby was placed gently into a set of scales and then another nurse picked the baby up, wrapping it into a clean blanket and then the baby was on his chest and Harry couldn’t stop the tears that were falling as he found himself looking into the face of his baby. He didn’t even care what the doctors or nurses were doing now that he had his baby. He lay back down so that he could wrap his shaky arms around his little baby and he couldn’t have stopped the tears, even if he’d wanted to as he looked into the screwed up, crying face of his precious newborn.

 

“Do you want me to take the baby?” A nurse asked him.

 

Harry shook his head. “No.”

 

“Are you sure? The baby might feel better when given a proper bath and gets into a diaper at least. It’ll only be for a few minutes. You can have baby back after that.”

 

It took Harry a moment to realise that diaper meant nappy and that his baby might actually need one soon before he took a breath and nodded, allowing the nurse to take the baby back off of him.

He was sewn up, which took at least thirty-five minutes, cleaned up and he was starting to feel parts of his legs again as he was put into a room to recover and his baby was wheeled in in a tiny glass incubator not long after. He was supposed to be getting some sleep after his operation, but he couldn’t stop staring at his baby.

He forced himself to roll over and pick his baby up. He sat up and put the baby on the bed and unwrapped the blanket. He smiled as the baby made a soft noise as he checked that the baby had eight tiny fingers and two thumbs and ten little toes.

He’d known from the moment that he’d held his baby for the first time that he had a son…because he’d smelt the Alpha on him. He had an Alpha son. Sean was right though, it was love at first sight and he would be raising his little boy right, to respect Omegas and to not treat them like dirt under their foot. How could he have ever thought that he’d be afraid of his own child?

He cuddled with his little boy and the shock was starting to wear off. He’d given birth, he had his little baby in his arms finally. He took in a deep breath and he inhaled the scent of his son deeply, feeling so much love and contentment that tears sprung into his eyes again.

He didn’t think of Clint until his baby moved and he pulled back to see gluey blue eyes half cracked open to peer at him. He smiled widely and kissed the tiny, puckered mouth as his mind turned to Clint. He couldn’t believe that he’d missed the birth of their son. If he didn’t have a damn good reason for missing this, he’d give him hell. He might give him hell even if he did have a good reason.

He asked for his personal things that he’d given to a nurse when he’d changed into the gown. He dug out his new Stark phone that Tony had given him and he switched it on. He had eleven missed calls and several voicemail messages. He sighed and called Clint, he coached himself to stay calm, it helped that he was exhausted now after his disturbed sleep and giving birth. He was going to give that man a real piece of his mind.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- X

 

Clint sighed and rubbed the sweat and soot from his face with his forearm as he rolled his aching shoulders. He joined up with the rest of the team and they were silent, exhausted, as they made their way to the waiting van.

 

“That went well.” Tony said cheerily in his dented, gouged and sooty suit.

 

Clint just looked at him and sunk into the nearest seat. His entire body was one massive ache. Of course the emergency had to have been at three in the morning.

Phil Coulson joined them and then the van set off back to S.H.I.E.L.D for their debriefing. He just wanted to crawl into his bed and sleep for the next week. He smiled as he imaged Harry being in the same bed with him for that week.

 

“I know what that look is.” Tony teased him.

 

Clint grinned wider.

 

“How are things going with Harry?” Steve asked.

 

“Really well.” Clint said with a dopey grin that he couldn’t have prevented. “We had a serious talk the other week and yesterday afternoon when I went ahead of you to speak with him. I really think we can get past what happened and have an actual relationship, he gave me a key to his house. Our dates are going well and he’s gotten a lot more comfortable with me. I touched his thigh yesterday on accident and he didn’t even notice. I did that once before and he flinched and jumped a mile away from me. He’s stopped doing that.”

 

“God, you are in love.” Tony groaned. “We’re being forced to endure the endless talks about him and everything he’s done since you last saw him.”

 

Clint shut his mouth, but he couldn’t stop thinking about Harry. He wanted to spend all of his time with Harry, but he was worried about angering him or pushing him too hard. He was grinning again when he thought of his baby growing inside of Harry.

 

“Just call him.” Natasha said with a smile of her own at how happy he was.

 

“It’s six in the morning.” Clint sighed, but he got his phone out of one of his numerous pockets and switched it on.

 

“He’s usually up at around six anyway, isn’t he?” Bruce asked.

 

Clint shook his head. “The heavier pregnant he gets the earlier he goes to bed and the longer he stays there.”

 

His phone lit up and Clint was dismayed to see that he had six missed calls, all from Harry. His heart missed a beat and he checked the times of the missed calls…they were all between four and five in the morning. He only had one voicemail.

 

 _‘Why the hell aren’t you answering your damn phone?!’_ Harry’s, very angry, voice filled the back of the van. _‘I can’t get a hold of anyone! I swear if you don’t call me back immediately, I’ll take your damn head off!’_

“Oh yeah, I can totally see how well your relationship is going.” Tony broke the silence that had filled the back of the van.

 

“Something must be wrong.” Clint said worriedly as he tapped a few touch screen keys and called Harry. “He doesn’t ever wake up at four in the morning, he’s been trying to call me for an hour and then he just stopped.”

 

Harry did not answer. Clint called him several times, each time the phone cut straight to voicemail and he was getting more and more worked up as Harry didn’t answer.

 

“Detour to his house!” He said through gritted teeth and Coulson immediately got the driver to do as he wanted.

 

“He called me too.” Bruce said guiltily. “At half four. He didn’t leave a message.”

 

“I think he called me too.” Steve told them as he took his own phone out of his pocket, switched it on and turned it to Tony as he thought the little phone icon in the corner meant that he’d had a call.

 

“Yeah, he called Steve just after Bruce and then again at five to five…I think you’re right, Legolas. He called me too. Something’s wrong.”

 

“He called me at ten to five.” Coulson said with a sigh.

 

Clint gripped at his own hair. “Something is definitely wrong if he’s calling for S.H.I.E.L.D! He was supposed to be safe now! I thought we’d gotten everyone connected to that warehouse!”

 

“We must have missed someone.” Tony said seriously.

 

They made it to Harry’s house and Clint was slightly surprised to find it spotless and the door locked. He used the key that Harry had given him just yesterday to let himself in.

 

“Harry?” He called out. “Harry?!”

 

The house was silent…clean, perfect and empty.

 

“There doesn’t seem to have been any struggle at all. Upstairs is just as perfect.” Natasha told him and Clint felt like he couldn’t breathe.

 

“I don’t think he was taken.” Coulson said calmly. “He was calling us for an hour, if anyone had broken in, he wouldn’t have had that time.”

 

“So where is he?” Clint demanded.

 

“He could be at the Tower.” Steve suggested.

 

“Jarvis, is Harry at the Tower?” Tony asked his watch.

 

“No, Sir.”

 

“We need to find him.”

 

Clint’s phone rang at that moment and he almost broke it when he saw that it was displaying Harry’s number.

 

“Put it on speaker.” Coulson told him just before he answered the call. He did as was suggested.

 

“Harry?! Are you alright? Where are you?”Clint all but screamed down the phone.

 

 _‘Hi, Clint.’_ Harry said and the first thing that Clint realised was how tired Harry sounded. _‘I’m alright, I’m just incredibly tired. I’m at the hospital. I gave birth an hour ago.’_

Clint felt his knees go and his ears started ringing. He couldn’t see or hear anything, he couldn’t take anything else in and he felt the phone being eased from his hand.

 

“What hospital are you in?”

 

_‘Hi, Phil. I don’t know. The nearest one to my house I suppose. I did try and call S.H.I.E.L.D, but no one picked up, I had to call an ambulance. The baby really wanted out and the pain was getting much worse.’_

 

“It’s alright, Harry. We’ll find you and we’ll be right there. At the moment, Clint seems to be in shock, but we’ll take care of him too.”

 

 _‘Thank you.’_ Harry answered through a yawn that almost made the team’s eyes water in sympathy. In the background they heard a baby mewl. _‘I have to go, the baby’s hungry.’_

 

“He really gave birth.” Tony exclaimed in slight shock.

 

“What, you thought he was lying?” Steve asked.

 

“Not exactly, I just…it sort of seemed like this day wouldn’t come. We were with him just last night and now today, he’s got a baby.”

 

“That’s kind of how birth works.” Natasha snarked.

 

“He’s not far from here.” Coulson interrupted. “Clint, do you want to go?”

 

That snapped Clint out of his shock and he got moving, climbing back into the van. It took a very tense, anxious twenty minutes to reach the hospital in the morning traffic and Clint was very, very agitated when they finally arrived to the hospital that Harry had been taken to.

 

“Where is Harry?” He demanded of the nurse behind the desk. “Harry James Potter, he came in about two hours ago in labour.”

 

“Harry? Yes, he came in a couple of hours ago.” The nurse said as she clicked away at the keys on her computer. “He’s an absolute darling.” She continued with a nice smile. “If everyone in labour was as wonderful as he is then I’d love my job a lot more. He breezed through the birth, bless him. Ah, here we are, room three-o-nineteen, that’s down this corridor and up the elevator to the third floor. You need to go straight ahead and then it’ll be the door on the end, on the left.”

 

“Thank you.” Coulson told the nurse before he followed the Avengers team, who had already taken off towards the elevator.

 

Clint was almost running as they reached the third floor, they had to stop and clean their hands with a sanitiser gel when a nurse all but shouted at them, what difference it would make when they were straight from a battle and utterly filthy he didn’t know, but they did as they were told before they set off again, down the corridor and he found Harry’s room and just barged right in.

 

“Let’s hope that actually is Harry’s room.” Tony said as he followed Clint to find that yes, it was Harry’s room and Harry was sat up in bed, a wrapped bundle in his arms and he was giving Clint a tongue lashing for bursting in on him.

 

“….you could have given me a damn heart attack!” Harry finished sternly. “Where have you been?”

 

“There was an emergency.” Clint said, standing at Harry’s bedside, his legs actually touching the bed. “I am so sorry, we turn our phones off on all missions so they don’t distract us.”

 

“It’s fine, if it was an emergency, it couldn’t be helped.”

 

“How are you?” Steve asked.

 

“Good, really good. The pain killers kicked in half an hour ago, but I’m really, really tired. I could hardly sleep last night, so here, Clint. Meet your son, I’m going to sleep for the next seven hours.”

 

Harry handed the newborn over to Clint, who held the baby awkwardly and a bit gingerly, he was straight from a battle after all and he was filthy, and he watched as Harry rolled over and dropped almost straight off to sleep. Clint noticed that his face was pale, drawn and his eyes were bruised purple with exhaustion.

He looked down at the baby in his arms and he smiled at the sleeping baby. A son…an Alpha son. Not that he cared about his baby’s born social rank, not after meeting Harry and all of his time with the enforcers.

 

“Stop hogging the baby.” Natasha told him as she looked over his shoulder. “He’s adorable.”

 

Clint couldn’t keep the grin from his face as he sat down, almost collapsed really, into the room’s only chair and he let his teammates look at his newborn son.

 

“I can’t believe I’m actually holding him.” Clint said barely above a whisper.

 

“It’s been seven months in the making.” Tony joked as he peered at the wrinkly, bald baby. “Takes after you for looks…or lack of them. Poor kid. Oof.”

 

Tony got a smack from all sides for that jibe and he rubbed at his stomach as the air was forcibly expelled from his lungs at the multiple hits.

 

“We need to call Fury and you need to call Pepper.” Steve said. “She’d want to be here.”

 

Tony nodded and got Jarvis to inform her of what had happened through his watch. It was almost completely silent in the hospital room as Mother and baby slept peacefully, at least until the baby shifted, once, twice and then a gummy, pink mouth opened and the wailing started and Harry was just awake.

He held his arms out silently, still groggy, demanding the baby back and Clint carefully and gently passed the baby to Harry even as Harry pressed the nurse button by the side of his bed as he cradled the baby in his arms.

A nurse came in and she already had a bottle and a fresh diaper in her hands and she smiled at Harry.

 

“Right on time, again. I’ll tell you, that baby will be a dream to look after.” She told Harry who smiled tiredly as he accepted the bottle, shook a few drops of milk onto his bare forearm before stroking the nipple on the baby’s cheek.

 

Clint watched as the baby’s mouth opened and his newborn son started searching for the bottle, which Harry offered to him. He clamped his mouth shut over the teat of the bottle and he suckled so strongly that it seemed that he’d pull the bottle right out of Harry’s hand.

His job done, Harry rested back against his pillows and his head slipped to the one side as he dozed. Clint felt awful for Harry in that moment and he swore that the next feed the baby needed, he’d do it. He would clean himself up, get this soot off of himself and he’d help Harry with their son so that Harry could get some sleep, because he really, really needed it.

 

“Have you got a name for him?” Bruce asked.

 

Harry shook his head, still dozing as he reclined against the pillows.

 

“Not yet.” He said quietly. “I wanted to talk it over with Clint first.”

 

Clint couldn’t have stopped the grin that spread out over his face when he heard that…how could he? He’d been preparing himself to accept whatever name Harry chose, even if he put down Potter on the baby’s birth certificate and not Barton, he had been willing to accept it just to be a part of Harry’s life, of their baby’s life. A name was just a name after all. But to hear that Harry wanted to talk over options with him, it made him feel so appreciated and so grateful that he placed a hand on Harry’s knee and circled his thumb on Harry’s leg.

Harry smiled when he felt it and he sighed.

 

“I can’t wait to go home.” He said. “I don’t like that glass case they want me to put the baby in and trying to sleep with him is more difficult than I’d been imagining. Every time I drift off, I jerk back awake because I think I’m tilting or dropping him.”

 

The door knocked and it was Steve who answered it. He stood aside and let Pepper and Tony’s driver, Happy, into the small hospital room.

 

“Harry, congratulations. I’m so sorry that I missed your calls. I was in a meeting late last night and I slept right through them.” Pepper said with an apologetic smile as she made her way to his bedside and looked at the baby feeding. “He’s gorgeous.”

 

Harry grinned at the compliment. “Obviously he takes after me.” Harry bent his knee to nudge at Clint’s hand.

 

“I thought he looked more like Clint…you know, the whole bald, wrinkly baby bird thing.” Tony said.

 

Harry laughed for a moment before grimacing.

 

“Oh, ow. Don’t make me laugh, that hurts.”

 

“Are your painkillers wearing off?” Clint asked him, standing up. “Should I get a nurse to give you more?”

 

“No, sit down. I’ll be okay. The sooner I stop relying on painkillers, the sooner I can go home. It’s not that bad, just when I move too suddenly or when someone makes me laugh. I’m fine when I go slowly and when I breathe, so I’m being weaned off the painkillers.”

 

“Isn’t it too soon?” Pepper asked in concern.

 

Harry shook his head. “No. They gave me the additional painkillers to take the edge off of the pain after I came around from the epidural…now that was amazing. I couldn’t feel anything below my hips and I couldn’t even move my own legs. They could have sawn off my leg and I wouldn’t have noticed a thing. But, of course, that wore off quickly after the birth and the pain of the caesarean kicked in and everything was one massive ache, so I had some morphine to make it all better. I still feel like I’ve been hit by a train, but it’s not as sharp or as consuming. This is bearable where before, it wasn’t.”

 

“You do have a high threshold for pain.” Tony agreed.

 

He got several glares for mentioning Harry’s torture, but Harry just smiled.

 

“I know. But thanks to that, I get to go home tomorrow, after I’ve proven I can support my own weight. Which I’m sure I can do. They’re only keeping me in today because I had a caesarean, if I’d been a Beta female and just given birth, I’d be released at lunch time.”

 

“Are you coming to the tower for a few days?” Tony asked.

 

Harry gave it some serious thought, before he shook his head. “No. All my stuff is at my house and I want to get him into a routine early. Besides, I’ve grown very fond of my own bed and the smell of my sheets. I need that comfort right now.”

 

“What about Clint?” Natasha asked him.

 

Harry looked to Clint and then back to Natasha. “What do you mean? What about him?”

 

“Will he be able to see his son?”

 

“I told you, I’m not going to invoke the protection act, that’s all past us now, of course he’ll see him.”

 

“That’s not what I meant.”

 

Harry frowned, before it clicked. He laughed before pulling a pained face and hissing.

 

“Damn caesarean.” He cursed before looking back up and smiling. “I’m not doing this on my damn own. I need some decent sleep. No, Clint’s staying at mine until I can actually walk up and down the stairs unaided. You don’t get a say in that either.” He added, addressing Clint.

 

Clint grinned at him so widely and full of relief that Harry felt his eyes prickle. He blinked and the moment passed, but he still couldn’t believe that Clint had been worried over access to his son. He’d given him a damn key just the night before! Surely that had given the man a clue as to what he’d meant. Then perhaps not, Alphas were sort of dense when it came to such things.

 

“I gave you a key to my house for a reason.” Harry told him. “I wanted you to be able to come and go as you please and now that we have this one, I do really mean that. I can’t do stairs at the moment, I already know that for a certainty, so naturally you have to be there for the first week at least. Then you can choose where you want to be, mine or the tower. There’s no pressure, I gave you a key so that you could choose, but for the first week, I need you to be at mine to help with the baby.”

 

Harry took the almost empty bottle from his son’s mouth, wiping the milky lips with the blanket before gently putting the baby on his shoulder and rubbing his little back.

 

“Isn’t that painful?” Bruce asked in concern.

 

“A little.” Harry admitted. “But I don’t care.”

 

“I can’t believe he’s finally here.” Pepper said with a smile.

 

“I can’t.” Harry agreed. “I was only thinking yesterday that I had five more weeks of hell to survive and today, here he is.”

 

“You still have a bump.” Tony pointed out.

 

“It’s not a bump anymore, it’s a pouch. It’s empty and the swelling will go down now over the next several weeks as the caesarean cut heals.”

 

“How gross is that?” Tony asked curiously and Harry grinned. He passed his son over to Pepper for her to have a hold and he carefully pushed the blanket he was covered with down.

 

He made sure his private parts were covered as he was still naked under the little gown and he tugged that up to show the stitched up line just above his pubic region.

 

“It’s not that bad.” He said as he looked at it, moving the catheter tube out of the way. “The doctors did a brilliant job and it’s all nice and neat. It should heal absolutely fine and I’ve been told that there were no complications at all, so overall I’m very pleased. The worse part of it was being shaved.”

 

“They shaved you?” Tony said and the grin on his face made Harry roll his eyes.

 

“They needed to, just in case any hair went inside the caesarean cut. That would be very, very bad.”

 

“Is that a catheter?”

 

“Yeah.” Harry grimaced. “That is uncomfortable too. I’m trying not to think of it.”

 

Harry tucked his gown back down and pulled the blanket back up and he relaxed himself back on his pillows. Clint’s hand went back to his knee and squeezed comfortingly and Harry smiled to himself. He couldn’t believe that he’d given birth so early in the morning, just as the Avengers had been called out to their first real emergency in several months. The chances of that were astronomical, but with the Potter luck, he really should have been expecting it.

He closed his eyes and smiled to himself, he was asleep within minutes.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry was carried into his house by Clint and he was placed so gently onto his settee that he had to kiss Clint’s cheek.

Bruce came in next carrying the sleeping baby in a carrycot and he placed it on the coffee table.

 

“Can I get you tea, Harry?” Steve asked.

 

“Coffee, please. I’m not pregnant anymore, I’m going to mainline that stuff until it comes out of my ears. I’ve missed it so much.”

 

“When does he need another feed?” Clint asked Harry, looking at their son.

 

“In another hour or so.” Harry told him, looking at the clock on his wall. “He’ll be wet before he needs another feed. You want to have a go at doing that?”

 

Clint nodded nervously. He’d done a feed by himself, with Harry overseeing, but he hadn’t done a change yet, even though he’d been watching Harry closely to see how he did it, he was still a little apprehensive about it.

Steve came in and he gave Harry a mug of coffee. Harry took one sip and even though it wasn’t exactly how he liked it, he still moaned happily as he gulped it down.

 

“Oh, this is amazing, thanks Steve.”

 

Steve smiled at him and sat down next to Bruce. Clint was on the floor in front of the baby, just waiting for him to wake up.

 

“Do you want us to give you some privacy?” Bruce asked.

 

“Don’t be so hasty, drink your tea first.” Harry insisted. “Clint’s staying here now, we can have privacy later, but I’m not kicking you out before you’ve even finished your drinks.”

 

“Tony and Pepper said they’d visit when they could, they had a meeting today, even Pepper tried to cancel it, but it was a crucial meeting, which is why Tony had to go to it too.”

 

“I was only coming out of the hospital.” Harry rolled his eyes. “That little bugger isn’t going to remember that Uncle Tony and Auntie Pepper weren’t here for his homecoming either, he doesn’t frankly care as long as he’s warm, dry and well fed.”

 

“We wanted to be here for you.” Steve said sitting forward when the baby snuffled.

 

Clint tucked the blanket around the baby more securely and looked to Harry to see if he’d done the right thing. Harry pretended not to notice.

 

“You guys have always been here for me, I don’t want to be fussed today anyway. I feel bad enough as it is with the lack of sleep and the aches. If anyone fussed me too much today, then I’d probably just get angry and snap at everyone.”

 

“But you’re alright?”

 

Harry nodded with a smile. “I’ll be just fine. Besides, Clint isn’t going anywhere, are you?”

 

Clint shook his head. “No.”

 

“See? I’ll be just fine. Clint can manage everything and together we can deal with the baby.”

 

“We’ll leave you to it then.” Steve said as he took the empty cups into the kitchen and he and Bruce left him and Clint alone.

 

“He’s beautiful, Harry.” Clint said, for the seventh time.

 

“I know. It’s still a little amazing to see that he’s finally here. I can see him, hold him when really he should still be inside me. I was worried about going over due, I didn’t think about going into labour early.”

 

“I’m so sorry that I wasn’t there with you.”

 

“I understand that it was an emergency, Clint. You don’t need to keep apologising for saving the city. I’ve told you that a hundred times in the last two days.”

 

“I know, I just can’t believe that the first real emergency we had was the same night that you went into labour.”

 

Harry grinned. “That’s my awful luck coming into play. I should have guessed something like that would have happened.”

 

The door knocked and the both of them looked quickly to the baby to see him still sleeping peacefully.

 

“Go and see who that is, please.” Harry told Clint as he shifted himself more upright.

 

Clint placed a hand on his head and stroked his hair as he went past and Harry rolled his eyes. Clint was an overgrown sap.

 

“Harry? It’s Sean and Joe.”

 

“Ooo, let them in!” Harry called back.

 

“I’ve been frantic, I tried to knock for you yesterday, but you didn’t…answer.” Sean said before he walked in and caught sight of the baby on the table. “You had the baby.”

 

“Yeah, two days ago.”

 

“Now I feel even worse about missing your call!” Sean said with a guilty look.

 

“Don’t be daft. I should have called the ambulance immediately instead of pissing about for an hour trying to call everyone. I panicked a little I suppose. Then it was four in the morning.”

 

“He’s gorgeous.” Sean told him with a grin. “Can I?”

 

“You go right ahead.” Harry said and watched as Sean, his belly still big with his baby daughter, remove the straps on the carrycot and he picked his son up carefully and gently.

 

“He’s a good weight.” Sean said.

 

“Six pound and eleven ounces.” Harry said. “He’s eating really well too.”

 

“You’re both alright?” Joe asked as he eased Sean into a seat with the baby.

 

“Yeah, absolutely fine. They only kept me in overnight because of the caesarean.”

 

“Was it bad?” Sean asked looking worried. “I’m really dreading it.”

 

“You have nothing to worry about. I opted for an epidural. I wanted to be awake because I was on my own and I felt nothing, not even a slight twinge of pain.”

 

“You were on your own?” Joe said looking to Clint.

 

“He and the other Avengers were dealing with an emergency, I couldn’t get a hold of them, which is why I called you before realising that I really needed to be calling an ambulance. I did it all on my own and I felt nothing. The contractions were worse than the epidural, but once the baby’s out, you don’t even think of anything else, you’ll be too busy gazing at this gorgeous, beautiful baby that you’ve got in your arms. You don’t see the blood or the bloating or the red flushed skin. You just see your baby.”

 

“I’m so worried about it.” Sean bit his lip as he cuddled the newborn.

 

“Don’t be. It really is nothing and you’ll have Joe there to support you.”

 

“Would you do it all again?” Sean asked him curiously.

 

Harry gave a sly look to Clint and he grinned. “Yeah, I really would.”

 

Sean laughed. “Already planning your second?”

 

Harry grinned. “Not quite. We’ll see how we get on with him first.”

 

“What’s his name?” Joe asked.

 

“We haven’t really had two minutes to discuss it yet.” Harry replied. “I’ve got a few names in mind, but I want Clint to like them too before I make anything official. At the moment he’s just baby.”

 

Harry happily talked with Sean and Joe for an hour. He watched as Clint changed their son for the first time. He was a little nervous and it didn’t help that their neighbours were there, but Harry distracted them both by talking to them to take their attention off of Clint and he did just fine.

Sean and Joe said their goodbyes when the baby started crying for his bottle and Harry kept drifting off to sleep.

Clint was rushing around, trying to get everything sorted as he loaded the dishwasher, made up a bottle for the baby, made Harry and himself a cup of coffee and tried to stop the baby from crying while the bottle of formula milk cooled to an acceptable temperature.

 

“Why does it take so long to cool this damn milk down?!” Clint snapped.

 

Harry blinked awake. “Uh?” He grunted questioningly.

 

“His milk’s too hot for him to drink and he won’t stop crying!”

 

Harry made another grunt and picked up the bottle, took his wand from his holster and did a quick cooling charm. He tested it and then handed it over to Clint, who tested it himself and poked the nipple into the baby’s mouth, silencing the screaming.

 

“Well…that was simple.” He said a little sheepishly.

 

Harry pushed himself up and grasped for his coffee a few times before he got a hold of it.

 

“He okay?” Harry asked.

 

“Yeah, he’s just hungry.” Clint told him.

 

“Are _you_ okay?” Harry asked, forcing his eyes open to look at Clint.

 

He smiled and nodded. “I guess I just want everything to go well, but I’m out of my depth here.”

 

“It’ll be fine. We’ll do this together. Just calm down a little and sit down once in a while. The world isn’t going to end because there are a few dirty cups in the sink and our son isn’t going to shrivel before our eyes if he doesn’t get his bottle immediately when he cries for it.”

 

Clint nodded as he fed the baby in his arms, feeling the weight of his first and only child in his arm, looking at the soft, wrinkled face. His baby wasn’t bald as he and his team had originally thought, but he had incredibly fine, baby blond hair, which was getting steadily darker, but most of it was covered with a tiny little hat, only a few tufts poked out from under the hat to show on his forehead.

He looked to the matching scratch mitts and he snorted. He had thought it was ridiculous to keep a hat and mittens on his son, it wasn’t cold at all in the hospital or in the house, but Harry had told him that because the baby couldn’t move and just laid around all day, they got colder a lot quicker than they would as they were using their muscles and their bodies could regulate their own temperatures, but babies couldn’t.

Since being told that he always made sure that his baby had his hat and scratch mitts on, which also stopped him from clawing at his own face. Harry had shown him pictures of little babies with cuts and scabs all over their little faces where they’d moved a hand past their faces and their nails had caught the skin. No, his little son’s scratch mitts would stay on.

He winded the baby and sat down with him in his arms, Harry was asleep again, his coffee only half drunk, but he didn’t mind. Harry really needed his sleep, his face was still too pale and his eyes were bruised from exhaustion.

Clint tucked his son into his arms and kept him against his chest and he relaxed back, taking Harry’s advice to just take a moment to himself. He just sat quietly and he stared at his son as he slept, looking up every now and then to stare at the sleeping Harry.

He knew that this next month especially was going to be difficult as he and Harry juggled the baby and dealt with the new learning curve that came with being new parents. It was going to be the most difficult thing that he’d ever done, but with Harry by his side, he was sure that they’d both be able to get through it and raise their son properly, but he was just so grateful to be a part of their son’s life, to be a part of Harry’s life and to become a piece of an actual family. He would cherish both of his boys forever.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry felt like a zombie a few days later as he kicked Clint from his place on the settee. They hadn’t moved from the living room since they’d come home from the hospital.

 

“Wake up, the baby’s crying.” He groaned.

 

Clint just grunted.

 

“Clint!” He whined. “Get the baby.”

 

Harry groaned and grumbled theatrically as he hefted himself up when Clint didn’t move, stumbling his way to the bassinet that held their son and he scooped the baby up to his chest.

 

“Wat you want?” He slurred at the four day old baby.

 

He peered blearily at the clock, but it wasn’t time for a feed and a discreet finger into the leg hole of the baby’s nappy proved that he wasn’t wet. A hand against his son’s leg however, proved that he was a little cold.

Harry picked his way through the mess of his living room to fall back onto his settee with the crying baby and he snuggled them both under his blanket, resting his son on his chest.

The baby quietened down and Harry threw his head over the arm of the chair in gratitude, snuggling down to get some more sleep. He could honestly sleep for a month if given half the chance and it was getting to be a struggle to peel his eyes open every time his baby cried.

He was woken up by crying in his ear what seemed like only a minute later, but when he squinted at the clock, it had been over an hour…his son needed a feed. Harry groaned and rolled himself to sit up, if he remained lying down then he was not going to get up at all. He fucking sucked at this parenting thing.

The settee dipped and he forced his eyes open to see a pale and drawn looking Clint sitting next to him.

 

“I wanted to make his bottle before taking him off of you.” Clint told him as he held out the prepared bottle. “Maybe I should have taken him into the kitchen with me, I’m sorry. You just looked so peaceful together and he was quiet at the time.”

 

Harry cooled the bottle with nary a thought now, it had become the most used spell in his arsenal, next to cleaning charms because he would rather catch a ten minute nap instead of using that time to bathe.

 

“It’s fine. I needed to cool the bottle anyway.” He grumbled as he handed his son over to Clint to shut him up.

 

He rested back against the settee and dug the heels of his hands into his eyes.

 

“We’re not coping very well with this.” Harry said right before he yawned.

 

“We just need to figure out how to do this better. I’ve been thinking, I’m more of a night owl, I like the night time better and I’m used to sleeping during the day, but you’re the opposite. If I look after him during the entire night, that gives you a solid several hours to sleep undisturbed and then you can wake up feeling better and then I can go to sleep. If we approach this like a clock in, clock out sort of thing, we might actually start to function properly.”

 

Harry frowned. “We’ll hardly see one another.” He said.

 

“It’s only until he starts sleeping for longer.” Clint assured him. “We can’t carry on like this, where we’re both getting up when he cries and one of us is just sat there watching, like you’re doing now. It only takes one of us to feed and change him, nothing is going to happen and it’ll make everything easier on us. It couldn’t hurt to try it.”

 

Harry nodded. “Okay. Yeah, we’ll try it. You’re right, we cannot carry on like this. I’m going to collapse from exhaustion…or murder you.”

 

Clint chuckled tiredly. “I feel the same way.”

 

“Right, no time like the present then, pass him here and you go upstairs to bed and stay there. I’ll wake you up at ten.”

 

Clint frowned then. “I don’t like taking the first sleep and leaving you with the first shift.”

 

“Damn it, get upstairs and go to sleep before I hit you with the coffee table.” Harry growled as he took their baby son back from Clint to wind him. “We’re trying this and we’re starting right now. Knowing that I can go to bed myself for several hours at ten is going to keep me going until you wake up. Now go, you’re wasting valuable sleep time.”

 

“I love you.” Clint declared seriously, kissing Harry’s mouth before kissing their son and then going upstairs…neither of them had changed clothes for a few days, it was going to be a relief to strip off and climb into an actual bed.

 

Harry’s lips tingled where Clint’s mouth had touched them and he was suddenly wide awake. He blinked and then he grinned wide and he looked down at their little son.

 

“Things are looking up, Ellis.” He said softly as he gently swayed with him, his son blinking baby blue eyes up at him.

 

Clint was obsessive about the scratch mitts and the hat being on at all times after Harry had shown him scare stories to show him exactly why their baby needed to be wrapped up in a hat, mitts and a blanket while in a warm house, he even pulled little booties onto his feet over the feet of his sleepsuits to keep his toes warmer.

Harry thought that Clint was adorable, but now that he had their son to himself for a while, he pulled off the booties, mitts and the hat and unwrapped the baby from his blanket, letting his son wriggle around and allowed himself to touch the baby soft skin of his baby’s hands, as well as stroke his fingers over the thick, black tufts of hair that had paled to blond after birth and then over the next day or two had gone back to black.

 

“I know your Daddy goes a little overboard in protecting you, but he’s only doing it because he cares.” Harry said softly as he put the baby down on the seat of the settee and allowed him to stretch out.

 

He grinned when his son stretched out his tiny toes, still in the feet of his sleepsuit, but now with more freedom to move. He’d bought everything he had for a ten pound baby, his son had only been six, so he had a bit of spare room to grow and move around in.

He’d grown into his skin a little so that he’d stopped looking so wrinkly, but Harry still couldn’t get over how soft his son was. It was a new favourite pastime of his to stare at his son while gently running his fingers over baby soft skin that smelt of talcum powder and the lavender baby wash they used in his daily bath.

Harry swaddled him back up, tucking him down his loose, baggy shirt and lying himself back down on the settee. His alertness had not lasted for very long and he yawned as he snuggled down to sleep until his son woke up again. He couldn’t wait to kick Clint out of the bed and climb into the warmth himself.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Clint really felt so much better when he was woken up, but he still didn’t want to leave the nice cosy, warm bed.

 

“Wake up!” Harry groaned. “I’m so tired now, it’s your turn to look after Ellison!”

 

Clint sat up and scrubbed his face with his hands. Harry had already climbed into the bed with him and he’d stretched out and buried himself into the warm sheets. Clint smiled at him and laid his hand over Harry’s shoulder and up his neck, into his hair and Harry all but purred as he snuggled down.

 

“Where is Ellison?” He asked.

 

Harry smiled. “In his cot in the nursery. He’s asleep at the moment and won’t wake up for another hour or so.”

 

Clint grinned as he sat himself back against the headboard and Harry wiggled himself closer, pressing against his burning hot thigh.

 

“You’re so warm.” Harry moaned happily.

 

“I’ll stay here and warm you up first and then when Ellison wakes up, I’ll take him downstairs.”

 

Harry smiled. “He’s been so good. He’s always good, but three hourly feeds and a nappy change in between is a little too much.”

 

“I can’t wait until he’s a little older.” Clint said as he continued stroking Harry’s hair.

 

“I just can’t wait until he’s sleeping through the night.” Harry said with a sleepy grin.

 

Clint stopped talking then, letting Harry drift off to get some sleep, but he still didn’t move. He didn’t want to move with Harry so close to him and one small hand resting on his inside thigh. He was very comfortable and he wanted to stay where he was while he could, taking a little time to bond with Harry, even if Harry himself was now fast asleep. He looked gorgeous in his sleep, less stressed and more at peace. He smiled and gave him a soft kiss before he got up, it had been close to an hour and he needed to go and attend to his baby son before his inevitable cries woke Harry back up.

He went next door into the nursery and he smiled as he saw his baby son, Ellison, sleeping on his back, arms stretched out and bent at the elbow, tiny hands curled over his head.

Even as he stood and watched his son sleeping, a tiny mouth puckered and the plump bottom lip rolled over and into a little mouth. Ellison repeated this movement again and again, before his mouth popped open and he mouthed like a beached fish for a moment before a small mewl worked its way out of his throat.

Clint picked him up, making sure to take the blanket with him. He smiled as he realised that Harry had wrapped their son in the blanket that he’d spent several days hunting for a few weeks ago after the one that Harry had had was ruined during his second abduction.

He carried the baby down to the kitchen and wrapped an arm around him tight as he filled the kettle from the tap and set it to boiling to make up a bottle for Ellison. His son had rapidly worked himself up to full on crying, but Clint found it easier to blot him out now that he’d had some decent, uninterrupted sleep.

He felt like he could take on anything as he cradled his son in the crook of his neck and made him up a bottle with his other hand. He dumped the hot bottle into the sink and ran the cold water over it for several minutes before it was the right temperature for Ellison to drink.

He carefully turned his son down into the crook of his free arm and picked up the bottle with his other hand before he rubbed the nipple on Ellison’s cheek, watching as he opened his mouth and turned his head to catch it in his toothless mouth. He suckled just as strongly as he always did, eyes closed in enjoyment as if he were drinking down the finest nectar, one little hand raised to his own jet black hair and he touched it, rubbing his own hair between his tiny fingers. The other hand was pressed to his shirt and Clint smiled as Ellison sucked and swallowed, his jerky limbs not entirely in his control, but he clenched deceptively tight at the tee shirt he’d gone to sleep in and the hand in his hair stroked, just behind his ear.

His Alpha son was strong and was developing really well. He was so proud and pleased, of Ellison and of Harry. Ellis stopped suckling and he turned his head away, so Clint put the bottle down onto the counter and hefted him back over his shoulder to wind him. This was his routine. He and Harry did the same things day after day. They fed Ellison, they changed him, they fed him, they changed him, they fed him and changed him and then they gave him a bath and fed him and then they changed him and fed him and then it was morning again and everything started all over again.

They caught a piece of toast here and there, a cup of coffee when they could, they’d managed a whole sandwich once, but he hadn’t had a proper meal since Ellison had been born. Food wasn’t high on the priority list, if they had any spare time then sleep came before anything else. He and Harry had been eating on the go, grabbing coffee to keep them going, but there were mugs of half drunk, abandoned coffee on nearly every surface of the house. That had been their existence for the last four days now.

Hopefully his plan worked and dividing Ellison’s care between the both of them on separate ‘shifts’ for the lack of a better word, would make things easier on the both of them and they might actually have time for a shower and a full meal. He just knew that they couldn’t carry on like they had been before. It hadn’t been working.

Ellison fell asleep again quickly and Clint wiped his small mouth clean of remaining milk with a burp cloth and settled him down in his bassinet. Instead of immediately going to the settee to catch an hour of sleep, he was awake and alert, he didn’t need any sleep, so he collected up the partially full mugs of coffee and the several empty plates and he lined them all up on the kitchen counter. Once he had all of them next to the sink, he tipped out the remaining coffee and he started loading them up into the dishwasher. He set off the dishwasher, set off the steriliser to clean Ellison’s bottles and once that was done, he started cleaning the kitchen. He didn’t know how to use Harry’s washing machine, but he loaded up the mass of used and soiled burp cloths and he did his best to get some of them cleaned. It was a good thing that Harry had bought a lot of them in the first place, or they would have run out and their son wasn’t even a week old yet.

He couldn’t get the vacuum out, it was nearing midnight now, plus he didn’t want to wake Harry or baby Ellis up, but he still cleared away all the rubbish and discarded spit cloths and even baby vomit stained sleepsuits. He threw those straight in the bin.

Once that was done and he’d unloaded the dishwasher, putting the cups and plates away back into the almost bare cupboards, he made up a bottle ready for Ellison’s next feed, leaving it to cool on its own and he was surprised then to find himself with nothing to do. He made himself a coffee and instant noodles and he just sat in the quiet, eating something hot for a change, even if it was just a snack, and he wasn’t the least bit tired. It was amazing.

He actually managed to finish his meal and his coffee and he washed up after himself before his son woke up for his feed. He couldn’t believe the difference and he wasn’t stressed at all as he fed Ellison his bottle, he was feeling calm and in control. He laughed softly to himself, more an amused exhale of air than anything else, the difference several hours of undisturbed sleep made.

 

“I suppose it wasn’t healthy for you to be picking up on all the tension and stress either.” Clint said aloud, looking at Ellison who was suckling just as strongly as always.

 

He watched with a soft smile as his son fed and when he’d had enough, he put the bottle down and burped him over his shoulder, burp cloth ready to catch anything that dribbled back out, but Ellison was good at feeding and rarely spit anything back up.

He sat on the sofa and rested his baby on his lap, his head being supported by his knees and tiny feet curled up by his belly and he took a hold of Ellison’s hands, just holding them. He stared at his son, just looking at him as those sleepy, baby blue eyes peered up at him before drifting off to rest on anything and everything in the room, before his son yawned with his tiny mouth and those eyes closed and stayed close. Within minutes Ellison was fast asleep, his little chest raising and falling gently, rhythmically and Clint just grinned at him.

He snapped a few pictures and forwarded them to his team members, he didn’t care that it was half one in the morning. If they were asleep, the alert wouldn’t wake them, if they were awake, then they could look at his messages or not. He did not expect his phone to start ringing though.

 

“Hello.” He answered quietly.

 

 _‘Hey Barton, we’d half thought you’d died or something. It’s been three days and we haven’t heard a word from you or Harry. The good Captain is ripping his hair out with worry.’_ Tony’s voice came down the line, along with the sounds and soft clicks of a socket wrench being used. Of course if anyone was still awake in the dead of the night, it would be Tony.

“We’re alright, just both tired, or rather we were. We decided that splitting this into shifts would make things easier on us both, so I’m up with the baby and Harry’s catching up on some much needed sleep.”

 

 _‘How is Harry?’_  

 

“He’s doing alright, I think.”

 

_‘He hasn’t tried to murder you yet then?’_

Clint snorted. “No, sorry to disappoint you.”

 

_‘And Ellison, how’s he been?’_

“He’s perfect.” Clint said with a grin that Tony couldn’t see. “He’s so good. He only cries when he wants a feed or a change and he’s like clockwork. We struggled a bit at the beginning because we didn’t know what we were doing really and when he cried, we were both getting up to deal with him. We’ve stopped doing that now and we’re doing everything in shifts and I feel so much better, calmer and more relaxed. I hope that when he wakes up that Harry is too.”

 

_‘So when can we come over and see him?’_

“I’ll run it by Harry when he wakes up and if he agrees then you can come over tomorrow evening.”

 

_‘Brilliant. Maybe now I can get some work done without Steve pacing around and babbling about going to see if you’re both okay. I swear that man has some serious issues.’_

“He just likes caring for people.” Clint said as he combed his fingers gently through Ellison’s hair. “Sometimes he worries too much, but he lost everything he knew and everyone close to him when he crashed into the ocean. Let him cling onto us a bit, after all, he’s just worried that we’ll disappear too.”

 

_‘You’ve gotten some wisdom in your new Fatherhood role.’_

Clint snorted. “Maybe. I never thought that having a child could change me, but really, I started changing the moment I knew that Harry was pregnant and I just didn’t realise it. Now I can’t see my life without either of them.”

 

 _‘Me either.’_ Tony confided. _‘Harry changed all of us and seriously, we’re as close as family. We’re not just some misfit team anymore, we’re more than that now, which makes Harry and Ellison part of our family, a part of my family and I want to see them.’_

“I’ll be sure to tell Harry. He’ll let you visit, you know he will, we’ve just been too tired to do anything. We haven’t been eating or sleeping properly, an hour ago was the first hot food I’ve had in days. Harry still hasn’t eaten anything.”

 

_‘Be sure to remedy that before Steve sees him or he’s going to be impossible to live with afterwards.’_

“Harry will eat when he wakes up, now that we’re on a shift system, there’s nothing left to do. So I’ll make sure that he eats something.”

 

A curse and the sound of metal bouncing off of concrete and Clint rolled his eyes.

 

“Did you drop part of your suit on your head again? Steve will be onto you, not us.”

 

_‘No, I got distracted and dropped my wrench. That last battle really put some dents into my suit.’_

Ellison wriggled on his lap and let out a whine. Clint knew immediately what he wanted, Ellison mewled when he was hungry and whined when he was wet, both he and Harry had gotten the noises that their son made mastered.

 

“I’ve got to go now anyway, Ellis just woke up wet.”

 

_‘Gross. Well, alright then, call me later and I can finally tell Steve that we can come over to see you and Harry.’_

“See you later, Tony.” Clint said hurriedly as he snapped his cell shut and got Ellison onto the floor and onto his little foam changing mat. They hadn’t used the changing table upstairs once yet.

 

He undressed Ellison, taking his little legs out of his onesie and yanking open his bodysuit to reach his diaper. Trying to keep Ellison’s legs out of the way while changing the sodden diaper, he wiped the baby soft skin and then powdered him before getting him into a dry diaper and carefully redressing him, making obsessively sure that he didn’t pinch his son’s skin between the poppers.

Clint kissed his tiny mouth and picked him back up, watching as Ellison, who hadn’t once opened his eyes during the changing, settled himself back to sleep. Kissing his son again, Clint popped him into his bassinet and got rid of the soiled diaper and went looking for things to do. He couldn’t believe the difference just one solid block of sleep did for him. He hoped Harry felt this amazing when he woke up too. He couldn’t wait until Harry woke up again either, he already missed him.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Harry grinned at the look on Tony’s face as he held Ellison on his lap.

 

“Are you sure that I’m doing it right?” He asked for the seventh time as he cradled the baby as gently as he dared when he was so worried about dropping him.

 

“You’re doing just fine, Uncle Tony.” Harry teased him as he waved a freshly baked blueberry muffin under his nose as praise for holding Ellison.

 

“I’ll trade you.” Tony smirked as he indicated the muffin and then the baby.

 

Harry laughed as he took Ellison from Tony and handed over the muffin, which went down Tony’s throat practically whole.

 

“Try chewing it, you pig.” Harry scolded. “You need to be an example to Ellison!”

 

Tony just smirked and raised a damnable eyebrow.

 

“You won’t get any more!” Harry threatened and turned to Thor, handing him the baby. He was now the only one who hadn’t had a hold.

 

“Just control your strength.” Clint told his team mate worriedly and Harry rolled his eyes.

 

“He’s fine.” Harry assured as he adjusted Thor’s grip for him and stood back to see his tiny, doll like son in those massive, muscular arms. “He looks so tiny next to you.”

 

“He is tiny!” Thor insisted as he used the tip of a finger to brush over Ellison’s cheeks.

 

Ellison cracked open his eyes and peered up at who was holding him, his mouth pouted as he stared at Thor, who stared back. His eyes closed again and when Thor poked a finger into Ellison’s tiny fist, he clenched around it tight. Thor’s fingers were too thick for Ellison’s hand to go all the way around and Harry stroked his son’s thick, black hair before he went into the kitchen to top up coffee mugs and to bring Tony more blueberry muffins.

He felt so much better just because he had gotten so much uninterrupted sleep and he’d even managed to get in a proper shower and overall, he felt so much more human than he had just yesterday. Though waking up to a clean house, all the dishes done, the counters cleaned and all the soiled burp cloths in the washing machine was a very welcomed surprise and he’d thanked Clint profusely for doing that for him. He’d gotten the polish and the hoover out himself before the Avengers had come around and he smiled as his house looked more like his house again and not like a hazardous dump. He’d even had time and energy to spare to bake up a batch of muffins after Clint had forced him to eat his first real meal since he’d been in the hospital.

 

“I hear from Tony that he’s a dream.” Harry heard Pepper say as he walked back into the living room with a smile.

 

“He is.” Clint agreed.

 

Harry nodded as he put more coffee and the plate of muffins down on the coffee table. “He’s lovely. He’s been so good. I haven’t heard him cry yet that wasn’t actually because he was hungry, wet or cold.”

 

“He’s adorable.” Steve said as he peered at the baby drowned in Thor’s arms.

 

“Yeah, you two make a good looking kid.” Natasha said with a smile.

 

Harry beamed with pride and he settled himself next to Clint, or rather mostly on top of him. Clint didn’t mind at all, in fact, he just pulled him in tighter and settled his arm comfortably around him, hand on Harry’s hip and he carried on talking to his friends.

Harry watched them all with a smile as Ellison was passed around from person to person, his five day old son not even waking up as he was cooed over and passed from arm to arm, being kissed, touched and talked to. Little Ellis didn’t even care enough to open his eyes as he caused such a fuss around him.

He let the conversation float over his head, he didn’t mind what they were talking about. He just snuggled in tight to Clint and he only had to move when Ellison mewled softly from Bruce’s arms, wanting his next bottle.

He made the bottle up and cooled it down with magic before he went back into the living room and sat back next to Clint, who had Ellison in his arms. He handed over the bottle and he couldn’t believe how everything had settled into place as he cuddled into Clint and watched him feed their five day old son.

 

“He’s good at feeding.” Steve told him as they all sat quietly and watched Ellison suckle his milk.

 

Harry grinned. “He takes after Clint in that.”

 

“Hey, I’m not that bad.” Clint insisted.

 

Harry pecked at his lips and then took their son from him and hefted him over his shoulder to burp him, rubbing his back firmly and in a circular motion to bring up his wind.

He smiled when Ellison burped softly into his ear and he lay his baby back down on his lap and held his tiny hands, pushing his thumbs under Ellison’s fingers to lay across his palms, grinning as his son gripped at his thumbs tightly.

 

“I love you both so much.” Clint whispered into his ear and Harry’s grin widened.

 

He turned his head and kissed Clint hard.

 

“I think that’s our cue to leave.” Tony said as he winked at them both.

 

“Thank you for coming.” Harry said as they stood up and started saying their goodbyes.

 

Clint went to see them out to their car as Harry took Ellison up the stairs to his nursery, laying him in his cot and tucking him in. He made sure that the baby monitors that Tony had made himself and had gifted to them were switched on and he made his way back into the living room and back onto the settee.

He heard Clint come back into the house and shut the front door and then he was back in the living room.

 

“Where’s Ellison?” He asked as he sat back on the settee next to him.

 

“He’s up in his cot, peacefully sleeping. I thought we could spend some time together alone before we’re inevitably disturbed again.”

 

Clint grinned and moved forward, covering Harry’s body with his own and Harry reached up to thrust his fingers through Clint’s short blond hair, pulling their lips together. Their mouths met in a furious kiss and Clint wormed an arm under Harry’s back, holding him close.

They’d gone this far before, on their dates before Harry had been abducted, but it felt different now. Knowing that Harry was doing this because he loved and cared for him, not just because of their son, who was sleeping peacefully upstairs. It made everything better and Clint moved his free hand down Harry’s side and pushed it up, under his shirt.

Harry broke their kiss to gasp and arch underneath him and Clint, deprived of Harry’s mouth, moved his lips to Harry’s neck instead, licking and nibbling over sweet, pale skin.

 

“Clint!” Harry sighed softly, wrapping his legs around Clint’s waist and rocking his hips up.

 

“Damn, we haven’t done this in so long.” Clint groaned. “I’ve missed kissing you and holding you like this.”

 

Harry grinned and he pushed himself up until he was sat on Clint’s lap, those massive, muscular arms wrapped around his back. Harry loved Clint’s archer arms.

Harry wrapped his own arms around Clint’s neck and he kissed Clint, nipping at his lips and accepting Clint’s tongue into his mouth.

Harry squeezed Clint’s waist with his legs as they kissed and they rocked together and Harry felt a burst of deep love for this man.

 

“Bedroom.” He gasped out.

 

“Are you sure?” Clint asked in a rough, gravelly voice that made Harry’s gut clench.

 

“Yes, I wouldn’t have said so otherwise.” Harry insisted. “Now take me to bed before I go up and sort myself out alone.”

 

Clint stood up with Harry still in his arms and those legs wrapped around his waist and he easily carried Harry up the stairs, even with Harry’s mouth sucking on his neck, shoulder and collarbone.

 

“Ellis won’t wake up for another two hours, will he?” Clint asked as he took one hand from under Harry’s bum to open the door of the master bedroom.

 

“No, we fed him just before he was put to bed and he will need a change about an hour before his next feed.” Harry replied, breathing hard as he pulled his mouth from Clint’s skin to answer him. “That’s only if he wakes up too. He might stay asleep until his next feed.”

 

Clint hummed and he eased Harry down onto the large bed, keeping their bodies pressed together as he kissed Harry passionately.

Harry responded eagerly to the kiss and gripped a hand tight into Clint’s hair.

 

“Are you sure you want to do this? You don’t have to.”

 

“Damn it, Clint. Stop acting like I’m doing this out of obligation or something, I’m not. I want to have sex and I want to have it with you, so stop trying to kill my erection. We’ve been dating for how long now? We have a newborn son together don’t we? Yes, I’m sure that I want to have sex with you, now get on with it and stop talking unless it’s to say utterly filthy, arousing things to me.”

 

Clint chuckled and bent to nibble at his ear and Harry let himself fall back into those tantalising, tingling feelings and away from his anger and frustration that Clint was still worried about doing this with him.

He forgot what he was thinking about when Clint moved back and in one swift, mouth wateringly sexy move, he pulled his tee shirt from his body, displaying that luscious, muscular chest and the equally muscular shoulders and arms.

Harry sat up so that he could run his hands over all of those muscles and kiss and lick at Clint’s chest and shoulders. Of course Clint had a solid six pack, he sparred with the Avengers for training.

Clint didn’t let Harry take charge for long, he was an Alpha after all and though Harry had started this, he was going to take over now that he had Harry’s express permission.

He pushed Harry back down and pulled his shirt from his body and he growled lowly in arousal as he caught sight of his Omega’s body. He didn’t care one iota that Harry still had a baby pouch or the partially healed scar.

 

“Are you alright to move around so much with this?” He asked as he played his fingertips over the bottom edge of the scar. Harry’s muscles jumped under the skin and Harry giggled.

 

“Yeah, it’s fine.”

 

“The doctors said six weeks.” Clint said nervously.

 

“I’ve been taking potions to heal it faster. I haven’t been in any pain for the last three days.” Harry told him with a smile. “The Healers said I would be just fine after a week and completely healed in two.”

 

Clint shut up then as he pulled Harry into a kiss, laying himself back over Harry to get skin to skin contact.

He unbuttoned his jeans and pulled down the zip as he continued to kiss Harry, loving the feel of those plush lips on his own, the feel of Harry’s skin, the taste of him on his tongue, the scent of him everywhere as his pheromones picked up with his arousal.

 

“Clint.” Harry whispered breathily, eyes closed, panting hard as he used his foot to push down Clint’s jeans.

 

Clint kicked his jeans off but he had to pull back when he wanted to get Harry’s jeans off, it took him only a minute and less than three moves to get them off, leaving Harry and himself only in boxers. He quickly removed Harry’s boxers and kissed over Harry’s thighs as he did so, stroking his calves even as he slipped the boxers off of Harry’s ankles and threw them to the bedroom floor.

 

“Fuck, you look gorgeous.” He said as he drank in the sight of a gloriously naked Harry for the first time.

 

He couldn’t actually remember much of carrying a naked Harry out of the abandoned factory, he couldn’t remember much of when they’d conceived Ellison and Harry remembered even less of their son’s conception and absolutely nothing of the run through the factory having been unconscious for most of their escape, so neither of them counted that time. For all intents and purposes, this was their first time together and the both of them were very much eager for this to finally happen.

Clint knew that if they could do this and actually have sex with no bad feelings or memories, then they could finally get over what had happened and move on with their lives. This was the last hurdle that they had to face, the only thing still holding them back and Clint wanted it gone.

Harry hummed lightly as Clint removed the last fabric barrier between them, stripping off his own boxer shorts and leaving them both bare and he took a moment to just look at Harry again, completely uncovered, scars and all.

Clint swallowed the anger at all of the scars Harry had. Small, barely there lines, to a large, thick, puckered gash on his left hip that looked fresh. Harry flinched in pain when it was touched.

 

“Does this still hurt?” Clint asked gruffly.

 

Harry panted and nodded. “It will never heal properly, it’s a cursed scar. One made with a very dark, powerful curse. I got it during the war. It’s permanent and painful.”

 

Clint bent his head and placed the softest kiss he could manage to the scar and made a mental note to stay away from it as much as he could. The last thing he wanted to do was harm Harry or cause him pain from this.

The caesarean scar was a new one, one Clint knew had been surgical, hadn’t hurt Harry at all and was going to be fully healed very soon, but still he pressed his lips to it, smiling at the thought that Harry had this scar to give them their precious son, Ellison.

Clint kissed every scar he could find, particularly the small, round, sensitive scar on Harry’s inside thigh that made him catch his breath and moan when it was touched, either by fingers, lips or tongue. He moved off of the scars after that one and he instead moved his mouth from the sensitive scar, up to Harry’s right hip and over his belly, which made Harry squirm.

 

“Please, just stop teasing.” Harry begged softly.

 

Clint grinned and buried his face into Harry’s neck, kissing the skin that met his lips. He shifted his body to get more in line with Harry’s before he moved his mouth over Harry’s throat and up to his mouth, loving that Harry grumbled impatiently and grabbed his head, using his hair to pull him into a fierce kiss.

Harry pushed him away and rolled over, ripping open his bedside drawer and pulling out a bottle of lubricant. Clint grinned naughtily as he spied that it was half empty.

 

“Have you been naughty?” He asked.

 

Harry glared. “I have needs to be met and right now, you aren’t meeting them!”

 

Clint laughed and he hugged Harry tightly, kissing him again and letting him pull on his hair some more. He’d used more than half a bottle of lube when he and Harry had been dating, it had been a very sexually frustrating time.

He used his one hand to grab the bottle of lube and he pushed the cap off with his thumb. The pop it produced made Harry shiver and when he pulled back, those gorgeous green eyes had darkened with lust. It was definitely in his top ten looks that Harry had given him that he enjoyed, second only to the first time that Harry had looked at him with love clear in his eyes.

He coated his fingers, and the bed cover too, with lube and while he distracted Harry with a soft kiss, he played one finger around the entrance to Harry’s body. Despite Harry’s complaints, he was in absolutely no rush to stop teasing him. He was getting far too much pleasure from just being this close to Harry. Holding him, kissing him, licking him and loving him. Touching him skin to skin, hearing his racing heartbeat, seeing the flush of arousal covering his body, feeling Harry’s muscles tensing and bunching, his arms holding him tight, gripping his hair to pull him into a kiss and tasting those lips, his skin, as a light sheen of sweat broke out over his small, pale body.

Clint felt like he was intoxicated as he touched and kissed Harry, reducing him to soft moans and sharp gasps as he just played with Harry’s body, relaxing him and watching him through lusty eyes as Harry threw his head back and his knees fell to the side, splaying his legs open and giving Clint more access to his body so that he could play with him some more.

Harry felt like he was losing his mind and the only thing anchoring him to reality was his tight grip on Clint’s blond hair, his fingers digging in as he tugged and pulled, stealing kisses as Clint finally eased that one finger into his body like the sadistic bastard that he was.

 

“Please Clint. You’re teasing too much.” He tried saying, hoping to urge him on further, but Clint only laughed and carefully stroked his finger around inside of him, the utter bastard.

 

Harry was panting continuously for breath by the time that Clint pulled his hand back and slid two slick fingers into his body and he cried out desperately as a flush of heat encompassed his entire body, his arousal climbing to new heights, making him feel flushed, too hot and mindless.

 

“Fuck Clint, will you please, please just fuck me already.” He begged in a last ditch attempt to get Clint to stop teasing him. It didn’t work as Clint just chuckled deeply and spread his fingers inside of him.

 

“Just let me stretch you first.” Clint told him calmly.

 

Harry flung his head and hands back and groaned.

 

“You’re being a sadistic Alpha!” Harry told him.

 

Clint grinned and nuzzled at his neck before biting it gently, making obsessively sure that he didn’t even come close to breaking the skin, before moving his mouth to Harry’s small ear.

 

“I know, but I can’t help it. You look so good like this, all flushed and damp with sweat, your eyes are dark and lust blown, the way you’re tugging at my hair and digging in your nails, kicking your feet. I don’t want to stop just yet.”

 

Harry was breathing hard and he yanked at Clint’s hair again, pulling him back to his mouth to get another kiss, biting at Clint’s lips and gasping when Clint moved his hand fully back before pushing three fingers into him.

Letting out a grunt, Harry wiggled his hips to try and get used to the sensation of having three fingers spread out inside of his body. He gasped when they touched his prostate and his hips bucked sharply and suddenly in automatic response.

Clint chuckled in a way that was purely aroused Alpha male and Harry kept his eyes glued to Clint’s gorgeous face, those glistening muscles as Clint stroked and opened up his body in a way that Harry had never, ever experienced before.

 

“Please.” He begged softly, shifting his body restlessly as he tried to get some sort of real relief.

 

Clint bit harder at his neck, leaving a mark on his Omega that enflamed his blood to see and had his cock throbbing. He didn’t know how much longer he could hold off. Harry was just so arousing and enticing and his begging was getting more desperate and near enough continuous.

 

“Please. Please.” Harry begged almost on cue as he snapped his head to the side, rolling his hips up into his fingers. “Please, Clint!”

 

Unable to take it anymore, Clint growled and pulled his fingers free of Harry’s body and he shifted himself so that he could kiss Harry, thrusting his tongue into his mouth and swallowing those gasps and moans.

He lubed up his cock, squeezing a little tighter than usual to try and stave off the feeling of being on the cusp of orgasm before he pulled Harry into his arms, wrapping one arm around his shoulders and using his other hand to guide himself to Harry’s entrance.

 

“I love you.” He said seriously, kissing Harry before he pushed himself inside with one fluid thrust.

 

He had to hold himself still as the assault of sensations threatened to overwhelm him. Harry had stopped breathing and Clint kissed at his lips to remind him to take in a breath.

 

“Oh.” Harry sighed as he wriggled around before wrapping his arms and legs around him.

 

Clint hid his smile into Harry’s neck, kissing and nibbling at the already marked skin. He waited, using all of his self-control to keep himself still as Harry wriggled and writhed on him. His back broke out into a sweat as he continued to hold himself still, trying to distract himself by sucking another mark onto Harry’s neck.

 

“Please…please Clint.” Harry begged in a soft whine.

 

That’s all he had been waiting for. He took things very slowly, pulling out of Harry’s clenching body and waiting a moment before pushing back into him with a smooth, steady pace. Harry’s hands gripped so tightly at his shoulders that his short nails were biting into his skin.

Shifting his position, he moved one hand to hold Harry’s thigh, lifting it and urging Harry to move it up higher and Harry complied easily, his face was flushed pink and Clint knew that he wanted to see Harry like this every day for the rest of their lives.

He shifted some more until he could dig his knees into the bed without slipping and he got eye contact with Harry, kissing him furiously as he pushed back into him, pulling out quickly before pushing back in, his pace quickening as he found a rhythm, holding Harry’s thigh tightly to keep that one leg from moving lest he lose his angle.

Harry scored lines into his back and shoulders and he thrashed his head from side to side over the pillow, making his naturally messy hair spike out in absolutely every direction.

He tried to kiss Harry several times, but he had to smile when every time Harry would just gasp and moan or fling his head to the opposite side, his back and neck arching into him and away from him in mindless pleasure.

He shifted his position again, moving his knees closer to Harry to get a stronger thrust and Harry’s hands slid under his armpits and dug into the sides of his back, clawing, holding as Harry made soft little noises of pleasure into his ear.    

Clint could barely hold on to his control in this new position as Harry pushed back onto him and the new, deeper angle had Harry clenching even tighter around him, gripping at him like a drowning man in the sea, one hand in his hair, tugging, all but ripping it out in mindless pleasure while the other sunk short nails into the skin of his back. Clint really didn’t care, he didn’t feel any pain as the adrenaline and endorphins overwhelmed him as he completely unwound his Omega, smirking smugly as Harry let out a wail that cut off into a gurgle while his hips jerked up and into his own on reflex as he caught Harry’s prostate yet again.

 

“I love you so much.” He declared passionately, his voice a deep, bass growl as his Alpha instincts rose inside him, his brain switching over to more base thoughts, but he stopped himself from going over all the way.

 

“I love…I don’t…need…need…love you.” Harry babbled, his eyes firmly closed, mouth open as he rubbed his head over the pillows and flexed his hips continuously to try and reach his orgasm.

 

Clint moved a hand to cup Harry’s face and he kissed him deeply, passionately, moving their mouths together as he moved his body, flicking his tongue into Harry’s mouth and drawing his Omega’s tongue into playing with his as he used the last of his energy in a renewed burst of pace, his legs and stomach muscles aching and burning with the exertion, but he didn’t care as Harry clamped tight around him and locked his arms around his neck, jerking his back into an arc and gurgling some more, babbling odd noises and panting harshly, his chest heaving.

 

“Clint!” He called out and opened his gorgeous eyes, panting hard, almost hyperventilating as he gazed up at him and Clint could only growl, trying to maintain eye contact.

 

He let go of Harry’s jaw and he moved his hand down, over Harry’s belly, his fingers just skimming the skin. Harry jerked and wailed and eye contact was lost as Harry squeezed his eyes closed tightly and turned his head back into the pillow.

Clint chuckled darkly as his hand grasped Harry’s cock and he let it pass through his palm easily. He wrapped his fingers around Harry tighter and stroked down, listening as Harry’s breath caught in his throat at the new sensations and the higher spike of pleasure.

 

“Please.” Harry whispered, his eyes cracking open to peer up at him, his red lips parted as he huffed out his breaths, his hands were fisting the bed sheets now, as Clint had reared back out of his reach to get a better angle for harder, deeper thrusts.

 

Harry’s soft pleas were almost his undoing as he felt the white hot coil in his belly tighten with every word that Harry whispered to him and every hot and heavy gaze directed at him. He couldn’t hold on for much longer, already he could feel his movements getting less smooth, more jerky and desperate as his own orgasm built inside him.

He wrapped Harry’s cock in his hand fully and he stroked it with short, firm pulls that had Harry grunting into his ear, babbling and pleading nonsensically and then his breath hitched, his back snapped into an arch and his head flung back as his orgasm hit him and Clint got to watch as Harry fell over the edge and completely into his pleasure. It was one of the most beautiful sights that he’d ever seen.

Once Harry flumped, completely boneless, onto the bed, Clint let himself go and he thrust harder and faster, pulling Harry’s compliant body into a tight hug and he roared…there was no other way to describe the noise that came out of his mouth, as the coil in his belly snapped and he released into Harry.     

His head was filled with white noise, his body ached fiercely as he made sure to fall off to the side of his Omega, but as Harry tiredly rolled over and snuggled into him, Clint didn’t care about anything else. He just wrapped his arms tight around Harry’s tiny, sweat soaked body and he held him tightly, to his chest as he worked on calming down his breathing.

Little puffs against his skin had him looking to Harry. He had to smile when he saw that Harry was fast asleep, curled against him.

He basked in this moment, knowing that the biggest hurdle in their lives was now out of their way and had been overcome. Their relationship had gone onto a new level of intimacy and as he regained his breath and calmed his heart rate, he had never felt closer to Harry and he never wanted to go back to how they had been before. He loved this man and he wanted to be with him for the rest of their lives, even if Harry never gave his permission for them to bond together, he wouldn’t care. He would still love him and protect him for the rest of their lives. Harry accepted all of him and, with the revelation that Harry, and most likely Ellison as well, had magic, he had accepted all of Harry too. They still had to break that news to the rest of the team, but they were in no rush to do so.

Clint lay in the bed, holding Harry and just relishing this moment, this feeling of utter contentment. At least until he heard an unhappy cry from next door.

Harry stirred and murmured unhappily, but he didn’t wake up. Or at least Clint didn’t think he had until he spoke.

 

“Clint…baby.”

 

“I hear him. You go back to sleep.” He said as he slipped off of the bed and kissed Harry’s still flushed cheek.

 

He went next door and to the beautiful, carved wooden cot to pick up his baby son. Ellison was full out crying, not mewling or whining, but actually crying. He was wet and hungry and didn’t know what he wanted sorted out first.

Clint took him straight to the changing table and he smirked to himself. He was going to be the first person to change their baby son on the changing table.

It was no easy task as Ellison wasn’t happy at all, he was squirming around and waving his tiny arms about as he tried to urge Clint to change him quicker, to feed him quicker.

Once changed and wrapped back into his blanket, Clint got him down the stairs and into the kitchen so that he could make up a bottle. He didn’t care at all that he was still completely naked, he was too happy, too sated to give two shits about anything other than his small family.

He ran the cold water over the bottle of milk and he bounced his baby son against his shoulder, one large hand cupping the back of his head, the other cupping his bum as he bounced him lightly and swayed gently as he waited for the milk to cool down enough for Ellison to drink.

 

“It’s alright, darling.” He soothed quietly as he tried to calm him down while the milk cooled. “It won’t be long now.”

 

He turned Ellison down into the crook of his elbow and turned off the tap, testing the bottle against his bare forearm before he prodded the teat at Ellison’s lips watching with a smile as his baby boy latched on and started suckling, his awful, ear splitting cries mercifully cutting off.

 

“He okay?”

 

Clint looked up at the doorway when he heard Harry’s slurred question and he had to smirk at the sluggish looking Omega. The first thing he noticed was that Harry was also still naked, his hair was everywhere, he had bite marks littering his body and he looked so satisfied and pleased, even with his eyes half lidded with tiredness.

 

“He’s fine now, he just wanted his bottle and a fresh diaper.”

 

Harry wib wobbled his way over and tucked himself into his side, his hand lifting to stroke their son’s jet black hair as he snuggled into his side.

Clint allowed Harry to take Ellison from him once he was finished to wind him while he tipped out the remains of the milk, rinsed out the bottle and put it in the steriliser.

 

“Do you want a cup of coffee?” He asked.

 

Harry nodded with a smile as he swayed with their son, rubbing his back in firm circles.

 

“Please. I need something to wake me up, I feel so tired and relaxed.”

 

Clint smirked smugly as he made a mug of coffee for them both. He was feeling incredibly pleased with himself and he was so happy he thought that he might burst. He had Harry, he had his baby son, he finally had his own little family and he was so proud and pleased as he kissed Harry on the lips.

 

“What was that for?” Harry asked, startled at the sudden move, but no less pleased at it.

 

“Just because.” Clint answered as he wrapped his arms around Harry and Ellison, holding them close. “I love you. I love you both.”

 

Harry smiled and rested his head against Clint’s shoulder.

 

“I love you too and so does Ellison. You do, after all, feed and change him the most.” Harry added with a grin.

 

Clint laughed. “You go and get yourself into the living room and sitting down, I’ll get your coffee.”

 

Harry nodded and went into the living room with his baby son. He sat down and cradled him in his arms, keeping contact as bright blue eyes looked up at him. The contrast between his eyes and his dark hair was stunning and Harry really hoped that Ellison took Clint’s blue eyes permanently.

 

“Does he need a pacifier?”

 

Harry hummed. “Maybe, but let me stare at him some more before you jam a dummy in his mouth. You know giving him one of them sends him straight to sleep. I want to look at these gorgeous eyes of his some more.”

 

Clint sat next to him and smiled at his son, throwing an arm around Harry’s shoulders casually and pulling him to rest against him so that they could both look at Ellison.

 

“I can’t imagine my life being any different now.” Harry said quietly, long after Ellison had had a dummy pushed into his mouth and had fallen asleep in his arms. “He means everything to me now and so do you and Steve, and Tony and Pepper and Phil and everyone too. I can’t imagine a life without any of you.”

 

“I’m glad that you’re finally comfortable with all of us. I don’t even want to try and imagine a life without you or Ellison. I’m glad that you trusted me enough to confide in me, Harry. I really am.”

 

“I am too.” Harry replied simply as he yawned and snuggled with Ellison. “I’m glad that you didn’t freak out and run a mile when I told you.”

 

“Of course not. I love you and I love our little Ellis.”

 

“I feel better now that I’ve had him and I’m back on my suppressants. Calmer and more level headed. I’m just so glad that everything is normal now and that things can just stay normal. No mad men abducting and torturing me, no fearing to open my front door, no loneliness and no craving for human contact. I’m so much happier, thank you for coming to rescue me that day and though I’m never going to like how the conception of Ellison came about, I love him so much and I would never want to change a single thing about him and I’ve come to love you over these last several months too.”

 

“So…that can all be put behind us?”

 

Harry nodded and gave him a bright smile. “Yes. It’s all behind us now, Clint. I’m not going to hold a single mistake against you. I know that you never meant to hurt me, that things happened that were out of everyone’s control. I see things clearer now, I feel differently now that I’m not being consumed by fear and rage. I love you and everything that’s happened, it has been a dark blot in my past, a past that is already riddled with dark blots, what’s one more? We _can_ put it all behind us, Clint. We can move on together, with our little boy. I mean hell, we’re practically living together, we’re sharing a bed, we have a son and I think we just proved beyond doubt that sex is not going to be a problem for us…what more is there left to prove?”

 

“Nothing. There’s nothing left now to hold us back.” Clint said with look at Harry and Harry moved towards him and kissed him. He kissed back before they broke apart and looked back at their sleeping son.

 

They sat in comfortable silence just watching Ellison sleeping. Clint was very content having Harry leaning against him as he wrapped his arm around him. He inhaled slowly and deeply and he rumbled in pleasure as he detected the scent of sex and himself on his Omega. He could see his bite marks on Harry’s neck, he wished that he’d broken the skin, that he’d bonded with his Omega. But he knew that he would never bond with Harry unless he had his express permission and a bonding bite on his own neck from Harry first.

It wasn’t how the bonding typically went, it was usually the Alpha who bit first and then the Omega followed, but Clint did not give a fuck what the usual order was in other bondings. He and Harry were different, they were individuals and neither of them cared for tradition and Clint did not care if he had to walk around with Harry’s claiming mark on show for several years before Harry allowed him to put a bonding mark on his neck in return. He just didn’t care anymore, as long as he could still be with Harry and love him, then nothing else mattered to him.

 

“Shall we get him back up to his cot?” Harry asked.

 

Clint nodded and he stood up, hauling Harry up with him. Harry held fast to their baby son and Clint got a good grip on Harry, smirking a little smugly as he got to touch and hold naked skin to his own naked skin. Clint carried Harry up the stairs and into their son’s nursery, where he settled Harry down on his feet slowly and carefully.

Harry kissed their son and then held him out so that Clint could do the same before he settled him into the huge cot, his feet to the bottom before he covered him over with his little blanket. Harry had explained why Ellison had to be put at the bottom of the cot and not in the middle or the top and now Clint was terrified that Ellison would wriggle up the cot and then wriggle back down and suffocate himself. Harry had eased those fears by explaining that their son didn’t have the necessary motor skills to move himself much, that it was a precaution just in case he did slip down the cot and slip under his blanket. Still, Clint checked on him a few times a night, tucking him back in with his blanket if it was needed, though sometimes he went in to check on Ellison and he hadn’t moved a muscle.

Clint touched his baby’s soft head before he bent his head and kissed and nibbled over Harry’s shoulders. Harry chuckled, partly in amusement, partly because it tickled as he squirmed.

 

“Stop that.” Harry told him, but he was grinning widely.

 

Clint hummed. “I was thinking of taking you back to bed.”

 

Harry’s grin widened as he turned and threw his arms around his neck.

 

“Oh? And what would we be doing in bed at just gone ten in the night?”

 

“I suppose we could get an early night, catch up on some more sleep.” Clint said thoughtfully before he turned a naughty smile to Harry. “Or I could lay you down on the sheets and do utterly filthy things to you until you can’t take any more.”

 

Harry’s returning grin made his blood pulse. “Oh, I like the second option better.” He said with such a lusty voice that Clint scooped him up and strode straight to the bedroom.

 

Harry laughed happily as Clint made his way to the room next door. Harry was placed gently onto the mattress and Clint crawled on top of him, their mouths meeting in a passionate kiss that took both of their breaths away.

Harry reached up to pull Clint’s head to his own for another kiss and shifted his legs to make room for Clint between them. He smiled to himself as they broke apart to breathe for a moment. He loved this man so much and he was going to recover from his pregnancy and then, once they’d gotten more used to living together and looking after Ellison, he was going to ask Clint to bond to him.

He was nervous about it, naturally. Bonding was for life, he’d be bonding himself to Clint for life, literally for better or for worse and Clint would be bonding to him for life too. It was a huge decision to make, but he wanted it. He loved Clint, he’d come to love and respect the Avengers and he had his home and his little son. This was more than he’d ever expected, he’d been prepared to spend the rest of his life alone and that had been okay…until he’d met Clint and then suddenly, it wasn’t okay, he didn’t want to be alone, he didn’t want to be cut off from everyone around him. He wanted children, he wanted a family and now, that’s exactly what he did have and he wanted to keep it.

He hoped that Clint agreed to bond with him. He’d give him as much time as he needed, he just hoped that one day, Clint agreed to make them a proper bonded pair, a real family, but right now, Harry was very, very happy as Clint kissed and nibbled his way down his neck and towards his chest.

He stopped thinking about anything as his mind went blank with his pleasure and he sunk into the moment, giving himself over completely to Clint and those talented hands and those exquisite lips and tongue.

He wasn’t able to think straight again until late the next morning, as Clint’s actions had brought him to such a climactic orgasm that he’d fallen unconscious with the release of pressure and he’d slept all throughout the night and had only woken up when he’d rolled over and the sun had almost seared out his eyeballs.

It had been a very, very good night and if he had any say in it, this routine would continue for the rest of their lives. He just had to get Clint to agree to a bonding between them. He hoped that he wasn’t too adverse to the idea and that it didn’t take too much persuasion to convince Clint to bond to him. He wanted Clint to do it because he loved him and wanted to be with him for the rest of their lives, not because he’d nagged him half to death and he was only giving in to shut him up. That would turn into his worst nightmare.

 

“Are you okay?” Clint asked him, kissing his mouth with not a single hint of hesitation and Harry loved that too as he kissed back for a moment.

 

“I’m absolutely brilliant.” He replied with a grin.

 

He settled down and rested himself on Clint’s body, letting himself be manoeuvred around so that they could kiss one another easier, Clint’s arm around his back to support him up.

Harry really, really wanted this to become a part of their everyday lives. He was going to do it soon. He’d ask Clint to bond with him for life and then they could be a real family, they would be able to do this for the rest of their lives and nothing, absolutely nothing, would make him happier than if Clint said yes to bonding with him. His hard, painful, war torn life would finally be complete and he’d have a real chance at being truly happy once again with Clint by his side and with their son Ellison.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Well lovelies, this is the last true chapter of Damaged Bodies. It’s been a real journey with this fic and all I have left to do now is the follow up epilogue. I’m thinking of putting it ten years after the end of this chapter to show how they are a decade into the future, but that chapter will spell the end of this fic for good. Though I have several other Avengers/Harry Potter crossover fics to publish, but my next fic up is looking to be a Supernatural/Harry Potter crossover fic. 
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has reviewed or commented on this fic over the years and thank you for following it from the start to the end. I hope you’ve all enjoyed reading it as much as I have writing it and though I’m sad to finally reach the end, I’m also excited because I can now focus my time on new, upcoming stories. Thank you so much for all the enjoyment I’ve received out of this fic and hopefully I’ll be seeing you all soon with another Avengers/Harry Potter crossover fic, but until then, I hope that you’ve enjoyed this story and that you’ll continue to enjoy it if you revisit it in the future,
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


	21. The Bond

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This chapter is set ten years after the end of the previous chapter.
> 
> Last Time
> 
> He settled down and rested himself on Clint’s body, letting himself be manoeuvred around so that they could kiss one another easier, Clint’s arm around his back to support him up.   
> Harry really, really wanted this to become a part of their everyday lives. He was going to do it soon. He’d ask Clint to bond with him for life and then they could be a real family, they would be able to do this for the rest of their lives and nothing, absolutely nothing, would make him happier than if Clint said yes to bonding with him. His hard, painful, war torn life would finally be complete and he’d have a real chance at being truly happy once again with Clint by his side and with their son Ellison.

Chapter Twenty-One – The Bond

 

Harry reclined back in the very plush, comfortable rocking chair that Tony had graciously allowed into his living room at The Tower. He held the tiny newborn on his chest as he rocked slowly and gently in the peace of the living room.

He inhaled and then exhaled as his recently fed newborn drifted to sleep cuddled against his chest. He hadn’t had this sort of peace since before he’d fallen pregnant.

It had taken him and Clint years to get truly comfortable with one another, to get over the events that had led them to meeting and mating, but after eight long years, Harry had sat Clint down and he’d brought up the possibility of him coming off of his heat suppressant tablets and them having another child. Clint had been shocked, of course, because even though they’d had a relatively active sex life over the last eight years, not once had Harry ever mentioned, or even hinted at, coming off of his tablets or mentioned his desire for another child.

Clint had agreed immediately, but Harry was insistent on them talking it through this time, planning out every detail, and Clint had let him, aware that Harry was possibly overcompensating for the lack of planning they’d had for their son, Ellison.

Harry had sat their eight year old son down and explained what was going to happen, that he was possibly going to get a new brother or sister and what would happen when his ‘Mum’ went into heat and that he’d be staying with his Uncles and lone Aunt at the Avengers tower. After Ellison had readily and enthusiastically agreed, Harry had then gone and sorted everything out at S.H.I.E.L.D with Fury and Coulson, setting up a similar arrangement to when he’d given birth to their son.

He’d had long, in depth talks with his doctors about what he, and everyone else, could expect from the heat and the ensuing pregnancy, he’d included the whole Avengers team in with his plans and made sure that they had no questions and as a result, due to their heavy involvement with the decisions and the planning, it felt like all of them were having a baby, not just Harry and Clint.

After a full year of talking and planning, Harry had come off of his suppressant tablets for the first time in nine years. Everything had been fine, normal even, for a few weeks at least. They’d all been waiting for the bomb to hit, Clint had been scenting him out every morning, eagerly waiting for the heat period to start, but Ellison had kept them to their daily routine as they got him fed and ready for school, the only difference now was that it was Bruce who took Ellison to school and not Clint, who stayed at Harry’s side, just in case his heat hit him while he was away.

They had forgotten exactly what a full blown heat was like, especially after Harry’s preheats had become very mild after Ellison’s birth, and even Steve had struggled with the onslaught of pheromones, but Clint had quickly sequestered Harry away in the bedroom that they shared, in the house that Harry had bought all those years ago, as his team took the nine year old Ellison back to the Tower for the duration of the heat.  

Harry remembered next to nothing from the actual heat. He could pick out fragmented bits and pieces, but other than that, nothing. He’d woken up pleasantly sore and with Clint still inside his body, fast asleep behind him. He hadn’t gotten pregnant from that one heat period, but the one after that had seen Clint barely leaving him alone long enough for him to go to the bathroom by himself as the doctors confirmed him pregnant.

Now, nine months after that heat period, he was holding his newborn baby in his arms, inhaling the scent of the soft, blonde hair that their baby had taken from Clint.

Ellison had his dark, jet black hair, but Clint’s sky blue eyes. This newborn had Clint’s soft, blonde hair as well as his sky blue eyes. The combinations were stunning and Harry smiled as he rocked slowly and hummed gently.

Clint came into the room quietly and Harry smiled at him, not stopping his rocking or humming. Seeing his bonding scar displayed proudly on Clint’s neck sent a flutter of pleasure through his body, as it always had. Clint had been marked by him for the last several months, after he’d all but begged Harry to bite him one night, just after Harry had had his first scan for their planned second child. He’d insisted on doing it this way, on himself being marked before Harry was.

Harry did appreciate the thoughtfulness, but he’d begged Clint on the same night to claim him too, but his lover had refused. In the cold light of morning, Harry had calmly asked Clint to bond with him and once again Clint had refused. He didn’t really understand. If Clint didn’t want him to be his bonded Omega, then why had he allowed him to bite him? Why had he agreed to a second child?

Harry pushed those thoughts away, as he’d been doing since he’d bonded to Clint and hadn’t been bitten back. It was too painful for him to keep lingering on.

 

“How is she?” Clint asked, coming and placing a hand on his daughter’s blonde head.

 

“Finally sleeping.” Harry said with a smile down at their baby girl. “I forgot how awful newborns were.”

 

Clint laughed softly and he bent forward to kiss his mouth before straightening up again.

 

“Coffee? Or are you hungry?”

 

“Coffee would be wonderful.” Harry said with a smile. “Where’s Ellis?”

 

Clint snorted as he went into Tony’s kitchenette. “He’s climbing all over Steve’s assault course. Of course our Captain is running around after him, just in case.”

 

Harry laughed and continued rocking. Their son was a big, boisterous ten year old and he was so active that it took the combined efforts of the Avengers to keep up with him when he got going. It was why they were staying at The Tower and not at home, because Harry just could not do anything to help himself at the moment and Ellison was a handful without being pregnant or with a newborn baby on top of everything else. They had yet to move back home after their daughter’s birth a week ago, Harry was still recovering.

 

“Mum!”

 

Harry closed his eyes and looked fervently at his newborn daughter, hoping that she stayed asleep.

 

“Oh, sorry.” Ellison said with a lowered voice and a small, sheepish smile. “Is she still asleep?”

 

Ellison came over to cuddle into Harry’s side and peered down curiously at his newborn sister.

 

“She’s alright.” Harry said as he slipped his free arm around his son and hugged him.

 

“What are you going to call her?” Ellison asked. “My friends think she should be called Ellie, after me of course, as her big brother.”

 

Harry shared a look with Clint and they both laughed. Ellison went red and looked away.

 

“It’s a lovely thought, Ellison. In fact, your Father and I have decided to name her after you in a way, just not quite as similar as Ellison and Ellie, not when we shorten your name to Ellis.” Harry told his son and he perked right up again, embarrassment forgotten.

 

“You have? What is her name?”

 

Harry smiled at Clint again before looking back when Ellison tugged on him gently to get his attention.

 

“We thought that Eleanor would be a better fit with Ellison.” Clint answered as he handed Harry a cup of coffee.

 

“So…her nickname could still be Ellie?” Ellison asked hopefully.

 

Harry laughed. “If she wants it to be, but she might like Lea a little better, or even Nora. At the moment, she’s too little to make a choice.”

 

“Can I hold her again? Please, Mum. I’ll be really gentle.”

 

Harry smiled and he sat forward, carefully transferring his daughter to Ellis’ arms.

 

“She’s so tiny.”

 

“You were smaller.” Clint told him. “She was heavier born than you were and she’s bigger than you were too.”

 

“But…but she won’t end up bigger than me, will she?” Ellison asked insecurely.

 

“No.” Harry assured him. “You’re an Alpha, Ellis. Eleanor is a Beta, like all girls are. You’re going to be bigger through genetics, but I told you that I wasn’t very well when I was pregnant with you, which contributed to your smaller birth weight. It doesn’t mean anything.”

 

Ellison touched him gently. “I’m glad you’re better, Mum.”

 

“Me too, love. Now, how was your afternoon? Did you run poor Uncle Steve into the ground?”

 

Ellison grinned and nodded. “He was panting so hard at the end of the course! He had to sit down and have a bottle of water from Uncle Bruce!”

 

Harry and Clint shared a secret look, because they knew, they all knew, that Steve pretended to be slower and more worn out when ‘training’ with Ellison to encourage him. He probably hadn’t even broken a sweat running the assault course with a ten year old, but it would always be their little secret.

 

“You be careful with him, he’s an old man.” Harry said with a grin as he savoured his coffee.

 

Ellison giggled, well aware of how old his Uncle Steve was supposed to be. He carefully handed his baby sister back to Harry after a last kiss to her little head.

 

“Who’s an old man?” Tony demanded as he waltzed into the room and stared at him.

 

Harry chuckled. “Ellison run poor Steve into the ground again.”

 

“You did?” Tony asked Ellison, waiting for his enthusiastic nod and wide grin. “Good boy.”

 

“Uncle Tony, can I come into your workshop with you?” Ellis begged, running up to Tony and latching onto his hand. “Please, I won’t touch anything, I promise.”

 

“Sure, kiddo. Just ask your Mother, he frightens me when I do something wrong.”

 

“Keep your eyes on him at all times, Tony!” Harry said seriously as Ellison turned his big blue eyes on him, silently begging. “Jarvis, I want to know the minute anything happens.”

 

“Of course, Sir.” Jarvis answered immediately.

 

Harry looked down when the newborn in his arms stirred and she opened her gummy blue eyes and whined, rapidly building up to a full out cry. Ellison, the brilliant big brother that he was, came running back over to see.

 

“Is she okay, Mum? What does she want? Is she hurt, did I hurt her when I passed her back to you? Or is she just hungry? Can I do anything?”

 

“She has a wet nappy that your Dad is going to deal with while I savour this wonderful cup of coffee.” Harry said with a grin as he held his week old daughter out to Clint, who took her with a kiss to Harry’s cheek. “You can help if you want to.”

 

“I do! I want to help.” Ellison insisted as Clint knelt on the floor.

 

“Go and get the mat, Ellis.” Clint said as he rocked Eleanor gently.

 

“You got a name for the little diva yet?” Tony asked.

 

“She’s called Eleanor.” Ellison said proudly as he watched his Dad change his baby sister on the foam mat he’d put down on the floor.

 

“Seriously? I thought you were off the morphine now.”

 

Harry glared at him. “I am off the morphine, as you well know! She’s named Eleanor and it fits her perfectly!”

 

“It does, it so does.” Tony said with a placating nod. “Please don’t take my muffins away. Or my legs.”

 

“What have you said this time?” Steve asked, walking tall and proud into the room.

 

“Uncle Steve! Are you feeling better?” Ellis asked.

 

“So much better.” Steve said with a smile. “Your Uncle Bruce told me I had to lie down for a bit, but I think I’m finally feeling strong enough to stand up.”

 

Harry almost laughed aloud and he took a hasty gulp of coffee. If Steve hadn’t run that assault course forty more times at the speed of light then he’d eat his own arm.

Ellison looked so proud of himself and Clint ruffled his hair before handing him a nappy bag with the dirty nappy and used wipes.

 

“In the trash, buddy.” Clint told him as he popped Eleanor back into her sleepsuit and picked his daughter up, kissing her pudgy, chubby cheek and settling her into his archery toned arms.

 

“You hand her here.” Natasha said with a smile as she just melted from the background and took Eleanor from Clint. “This little one needs some female attention. She’ll be ruined with all you boys around her.”

 

“Thanks ‘Tasha.” Harry said with a smile. “I could use a bath and a minute to myself.”

 

“Need someone to scrub your back?” Clint asked.

 

“What sort of question is that? You know I can’t reach that one spot by myself!” Harry winked.

 

Ellison frowned at everyone as they all started laughing.

 

“What’s so funny?” He demanded, looking at them all.

 

“Nothing.” Clint said quickly.

 

“We’ll tell you when you’re older. Now weren’t you going to the workshop with Uncle Tony?”

 

Ellison brightened and he turned back to Tony and latched onto his hand again.

 

“I want to play with Dum-E!”

 

“You’re spoiling him. He’s getting ideas above his station.” Tony complained as he walked over to the lift to take them down to his workshop, Ellison still latched onto his hand.

 

“Natasha, we decided to call the baby Eleanor.” Clint told her as she rocked her, sort of Niece, in her arms.

 

“We had to stop those god awful nicknames.” Harry added with a grimace.

 

“Well I’m going to go and take Eleanor for some girl time so you boys can relax.” She winked at them and Harry laughed, giving his own look to Clint.

 

“What do you say you carry me to our rooms so I can have that bath?” He asked in a low, sultry voice.

 

Clint’s sky blue eyes darkened and he grinned, suddenly a very dangerous predator and Harry shivered in pleasure under the effects of that gaze. Clint could undo him with just a look and he knew it too.

 

“Whatever you want.” Clint all but purred, picking him up out of the rocking chair and carrying him to the stairs, opting to take them instead of the lift, purely because the stairs were less frequently used and there was less of a chance of being stumbled upon.

 

They kissed all the way down to their floor. Seriously, Tony had given every member of the Avengers team an entire floor to make into a sort of apartment and that included Harry, Clint and Ellison, who had his own room on their floor. They rarely used it, having their own home, but it was like a home away from home and Harry loved it.

Clint got them onto their floor and into their bedroom and he fell onto the bed, Harry still in his arms and he ravished Harry’s mouth, breaking off to nibble and suck on his neck when they absolutely needed to breathe.

 

“Don’t move.” Clint told him breathlessly as he hefted himself up and went into their en suite bathroom.

 

Clint quickly put the plug in the bath and started running the hot water, putting Harry’s favourite potion into it that relaxed his muscles and helped to heal the caesarean wound left behind after their daughter’s birth a week ago.

He rushed back to Harry, seeing his beautiful, fierce Omega right where he’d left him, grinning at him. Harry winked at him and spread his legs, inviting him back and Clint didn’t take a moment to even hesitate, he strode back to Harry and fell gently back on top of him, between his open legs and he kissed him passionately, with a lot of tongue and panting and writhing around on their bed.

Harry pushed him back, panting hard, trying to catch his breath. He moved his hands to the elasticated waist of his trousers, as he still had a pouch after being pregnant and it was more comfortable to wear his maternity clothes, and he tried to shove them down.

As soon as he knew what Harry wanted, Clint took over, pulling Harry’s trousers and boxers down for him before pushing his hands up, over Harry’s waist and up his sides to remove his shirt.

He kissed every bit of skin that he could lay his lips on as he stroked and caressed the rest. He loved Harry so much.

 

“Please. Please claim me.” Harry begged him. “Why won’t you claim me?”

 

“I…”

 

“Please, Clint! Do you not want me to be your Omega?”

 

“Of course I do!” He said desperately. “I want it more than anything, Harry!”

 

“Then why won’t you bond to me?” Harry demanded.

 

“I wanted to be bitten first.”

 

“You were bitten first.” Harry told him, running small fingers over the claiming mark on Clint’s neck and making him shiver in pleasure. “I claimed you several months ago, but you rejected me!”

 

“Not because I don’t love you.” Clint told him, finally realising the problem.

 

“Then why?”

 

“Because I didn’t want to claim you while you were pregnant. I didn’t want you thinking that I’d claimed you just because of Eleanor.”

 

“What idiocy are you sprouting now?” Harry asked. “We’ve been together for _ten years_ , Clint. We have a ten year old son and a week old daughter and we’ve been together for an entire decade! If I thought for one minute that you were only with me for the kids I’d have thrown you out long ago! I thought you didn’t want me as your Omega, not that you thought I only wanted to bond to you because of the kids!”

 

“Of course I want you as my Omega. I’d be honoured to bond with you!”

 

“Then please, please bond to me. Today. Right now.” Harry told him, his green eyes begging.

 

Clint claimed Harry’s mouth and pulled his naked body close to his own. He regretted that he was fully dressed. He now regretted not claiming Harry the day after he’d been claimed himself. Natasha was right, he could be seriously stupid on occasion, unfortunately for him, most of his stupidity came into play when it was about Harry.

 

“I love you.” He declared.

 

“I love you too. Now claim me. I don’t want to be unclaimed any longer. I want to be a claimed Omega, I want to be bonded. I want to be _your_ Omega.”

 

Clint blew out a shaky breath and he pulled back to strip himself as quickly as he could. He sent Harry into peals of laughter when his one foot caught in the hem of his jeans and he overbalanced, toppling to the floor.

 

“Very smooth, Hawkeye. Imagine, the famed archer of the Avengers, who walks along the top of the tallest buildings with impeccable balance, crashing to the floor because he caught his foot while rushing to get naked.” Harry giggled, peering down at him from the bed. “Did you hit your head?”

 

“No, only my ego.” Clint moaned.

 

“Come on, love.” Harry held a hand out and Clint got back to his feet and crawled back over Harry so that he was covering him completely.

 

Harry smiled softly at him, wrapping his arms around his neck and pulling him into a kiss.

 

“I love you so much. Thank you for giving me two beautiful children.”

 

Clint smiled back and kissed him. “My pleasure, love. If you want any more in the future, just say.”

 

“No, I think Ellison and Eleanor will be it. Me and pregnancy just doesn’t mesh. I swear even Thor was avoiding me and my moods this time.”

 

Clint laughed and kissed him. “I’d never avoid you. I love you.”

 

“Claim me, Alpha.” Harry said, cocking his head to the side and exposing his throat and neck.

 

Clint’s pupils dilated and the effect of Harry’s posturing was immediate as his body flooded with heat and pleasure and he bit at Harry’s neck.

He forgot about everything else as he touched and caressed his beautiful Harry, laying on him skin to skin.

Clint moved down Harry’s body, laying kisses and small nips of his teeth to the body of the man that he loved. He moved all the way down to Harry’s thighs, an area he knew was particularly sensitive, and he nibbled all across Harry’s inside thighs, making him squirm. Harry’s breathing hitched and Clint smiled to himself, into Harry’s flesh, at the reaction he’d caused.

Kissing his way back up, Clint touched with hands, skin and mouth in every way that he knew drove Harry insane with pleasure. He’d gotten it down to a very fine art over the last ten years and pleasuring his Omega made his spine stiffen and every hair on his arms to stand at attention. He blew out a breath to calm himself lest he get himself too over excited and end things before they’d really started. Even after ten years he had never tired of Harry and he’d never tired of sex with him.

He moved all the way back up and he pulled Harry into a deep passionate kiss that took the breath away from the both of them and Clint could only stare as Harry looked back at him with half lidded, glazed green eyes. The eyes that he adored. He did hope that their daughter took Harry’s eyes, with her beautiful blonde hair, but he would be just as happy if their little Eleanor took his own blue, like Ellison had. He didn’t care either way.

 

“You’re still as beautiful now as you were ten years ago. Maybe more so, even.” Clint said softly. “I never believed in the saying that beauty is in the eye of the beholder until I met you. The more time I spend with you, the more I love you and the more I love you, the more beautiful you become to me.”

 

Harry smiled up at him and he lifted his arms to wrap them around his neck. He pulled him down and kissed him. Clint felt Harry’s legs slip around his hips, his feet pressing into his lower back as his toes dug into his arse. He took a deep breath and slipped his arms under Harry’s shoulders.

They had to be careful. Harry wasn’t allowed to indulge in strenuous activities for a couple more weeks yet and he wouldn’t be able to drive for another three weeks, but if they were careful, then Harry’s healing body wouldn’t be over taxed and their activities would do no more damage to the damage he already had that had come from Harry carrying and birthing their daughter last week.

He made sure to go slowly, licking over Harry’s body, paying excessive attention to the places where Harry was most sensitive, tying to stave off his own urges to cum as he watched his Omega gasp, moan and writhe around under his ministrations. It was a pleasure to watch Harry like this and Clint found his breaths coming thicker and faster, his heartbeat accelerating as he cupped Harry’s arse in both hands and lifted his groin to his mouth to lick at the very sensitive skin along the crease where thighs met the body.

 

“No more.” Harry groaned out breathlessly. “If you tease me any more then I’m going to cum in your face.”

 

Clint chuckled deeply, his voice husky and gruff.

 

“Turn over.” He ordered.

 

Harry grinned and carefully, with help, turned over onto his belly. Clint made excessively sure that the stack of pillows he piled under Harry’s hips and chest kept any and all pressure off of Harry’s abdomen and the healing caesarean incision site.

He did not start preparing his lover, as Harry had obviously expected, instead he used a little blob of lube to cover both his palms and he instead started rubbing down the back of Harry’s body, starting at his abused lower back.

 

“Oh.” Harry breathed and Clint smiled, rubbing over Harry’s back. He didn’t put any pressure on Harry’s joints or bones, focusing only on his muscles.

 

He massaged all over Harry’s back and sides, giving a lot of attention to Harry’s thighs, making sure to include the back of Harry’s neck and over his arms too, sensitising skin and listening to Harry’s gasps and soft groans of pleasure.

 

“Enough.” Harry insisted as he rolled off of his pillow stack and onto his back. He reached out and pulled Clint to him by his arm and kissed him, wrapping his legs back around his Alpha.

 

Clint chuckled deeply and nuzzled his face into Harry’s neck, nipping and licking. He knew exactly where he was going to place his bonding mark. He’d known the general area that he wanted to mark since before Ellison had been born. Afterwards, when Harry had allowed him closer and they’d fallen deeper into their relationship, he’d found the perfect place by nuzzling all around Harry’s neck and he knew exactly where he was going to place his mark. He’d spent days fantasising about it, nights dreaming of Harry wearing his mark and now, today, it was finally going to happen. They’d be a true, bonded pair for the rest of their lives. He’d finally be able to officially claim Harry as his. His Omega. The thought made him shiver pleasurably under the slight feeling of stomach clenching nervousness.

 

“I love the way you taste.” Clint moaned as he kissed and nibbled all around Harry’s neck, lubing his fingers up as he did so.

 

“Your eyes have gone that darker blue that I love.” Harry grinned. “You’re close, aren’t you?”

 

Clint growled playfully and bit at Harry’s neck, nuzzling him and wrapping his arms around him to keep Harry still as he laughed.

 

“You make me like this.” Clint told Harry seriously.

 

“You wouldn’t be so close to orgasm if you didn’t insist on three hours of foreplay first.”

 

Clint smirked. “I like seeing you kicking out and tugging on your own hair in pleasure far too much. Even if it takes me right to the edge and I can only last for five minutes, seeing you like that, it’s more than worth it.”

 

“Enough foreplay.” Harry breathed. “I want my bath before it gets cold.”

 

“You can warm it up easily enough, you just don’t like being teased.”

 

“So stop teasing and come and claim me.” Harry said with a grin.

 

Clint growled and lay himself over the top of Harry, biting the place where his mark would lay before moving his mouth to Harry’s so that they could kiss.

His lubed up fingers probed at Harry’s body before sliding inside with minimum resistance. Harry relaxed and bared down on his fingers without even a second thought as he kissed Clint, trying to control his pleasured gasp so that they could continue kissing. He partially failed as he gasped into the kiss, his fingers tightening in Clint’s blond hair.

Clint carefully stretched Harry out with his fingers, watching and enjoying his lover’s reactions as Harry threw his head back and wriggled over the bed.

 

“Do I need to get my toys out?” Harry demanded.

 

Clint growled, not fond of being reminded that if he was away on a mission abroad that Harry ‘dealt’ with himself and his needs using toys.

 

“No. Leave them in the back of the wardrobe where they belong when I’m home.”

 

Harry chuckled and arched his back up, pressing himself close to Clint. “Mark me, bond me.” He pleaded.

 

Clint couldn’t refuse and he pulled his fingers free and replaced them with the tip of his cock, pressing just enough to keep himself in place as he snatched the bottle of lube and added another blob to his hand. He slicked himself up as Harry complained impatiently beneath him.

 

“I’m not going to hurt you.” Clint insisted as he pushed into Harry slowly, watching his Omega as he moaned and went boneless with pleasure as Clint pushed inside him.

 

“I love you, Alpha!” Harry cried out, clenching around him.

 

Clint’s spine stiffened with pleasure at hearing that and he held himself still as deeply into Harry as he could get.

 

“I love you, my Omega.”

 

“I’m not your Omega yet.” Harry told him. “Bite me! Bond to me.”

 

“I plan to.” Clint said with a deep rumble in his chest as he pulled himself out of Harry and pushed back in slowly.

 

Clint stayed slow and deliberate in his movements, but he made sure to alternate his careful, shallow thrusts with slow, deep thrusts that had Harry’s toes curling and a groan catching in his throat.

Harry lifted his arms to grip at the headboard and he used it to push himself onto Clint, who groaned happily at the action.

He became a little rougher with his movements as he got closer to his orgasm, but he kept himself under strict control, he wasn’t a S.H.I.E.L.D agent for his lack of control. He didn’t want to cause Harry any pain or cause any more damage. There would be a time for rough and primal coupling once Harry was fully recovered from birthing their daughter. He couldn’t stop the extra flex of his hips, the slightly rougher thrust, as that thought trickled in. His daughter, their daughter, to go with their son, their children.

Harry made a deep noise and his body spasmed as he reached his orgasm.

 

“Clint!” He screeched out and Clint could barely hold on as Harry clenched around him.

 

He brought himself right to the edge, and then he bit deep into Harry’s neck right as he hit his own orgasm.

Harry screamed again, but Clint couldn’t make a sound as he held his teeth around the flesh in his mouth, even as his knot formed and married him to Harry.

He felt their bond slide into place and he let go of Harry’s neck and licked the blooded mark softly. He rolled to his side and brought Harry with him, unable to pull out just yet as his knot kept him tight inside Harry’s body.

 

“I love you.” He said gently. “I want us to be together for the rest of our lives, watching our children grow up. We might even get grandchildren.”

 

Harry chuckled, his fingers playing happily over his bonding mark. “Don’t get ahead of yourself granddad. Our children are ten and a week old.”

 

“I know, I know. But it’ll be good to see them being settled in their own lives.”

 

“Until then, they still need us.” Harry sighed. “Fuck, I love you.”

 

“My bite looks so good on you.”

 

“As mine looks perfect on you.” Harry grinned, rubbing his fingers over his mark on Clint’s neck. His Alpha shivered and pulled Harry closer, pushing his knot deeper.

 

“Oh, I love knotting you.” Clint moaned, clenching his arms around Harry tighter.

 

“Get your fill, love, because as soon as Eleanor is a month old, I’m going back on my suppressant tablets.”

 

Clint groaned. “I guess we’ll just have to get a babysitter a night for Eleanor so I can get my fill of you.”

 

Harry laughed and kissed Clint hard. They kissed and cuddled together, just talking lightly, sometimes dozing, until Clint’s knot started to go down and he was able to pull himself out of Harry.

 

“Thank you for bonding to me, Clint.”

 

“Harry, it was my utter pleasure. I’m honoured to be your Alpha. I’m honoured to have you as my Omega.”

 

Harry couldn’t help but grin. “I’m honoured to be your Omega, Alpha.”

 

“Come on, let’s get into that bath, I still need to wash that one spot that you can’t reach on your back.”

 

“Oh, you already reached the one spot I can’t reach by myself.” Harry chuckled.

 

Clint laughed openly and lifted Harry into his arms and carried him into the bathroom. He handed Harry a slim piece of wood and watched as his lover waved it once and immediately, the bath water was warm again.

Setting Harry carefully into the water, Clint knelt by the bath and picked up a cloth to wash his lover with.

 

“Aren’t you going to join me?” Harry asked.

 

“I put your potions into the water.” Clint explained as he took care to wash Harry gently.

 

“Ah. In that case, best stay on the safety of the other side.” Harry sighed, gently prodding his caesarean scar, checking on it.

 

“How is it?”

 

“Healing. Another week or two and it’ll be like it was never there. Just like Ellison’s, it’ll be paler than the rest of my skin, but you’ll have to really look for it to see it.”

 

Harry happily allowed himself to be washed and dried by Clint, but he got himself dressed as Clint washed himself down in the sink and got dressed himself.

 

“Do you feel better?” Clint asked.

 

“Much.” Harry replied with a naughty grin. “But I think it’s about time I started dinner before Ellison begs Tony for takeaway again.”

 

“We’ve told him not to give Ellis any form of fast food.” Clint pointed out.

 

Harry snorted. “It doesn’t matter how many times we tell him not to, he caves in every time Ellison turns those big blue eyes onto him and pouts his lower lip. For an Alpha, he really does like being twisted around our son’s little finger.”

 

“Eleanor will be the same.” Clint chuckled.

 

“She’ll just take what she wants if Auntie Natasha keeps insisting on girl time.” Harry laughed.

 

Clint joined in and wrapped his arm around Harry’s waist and licked over his bonding mark, the mark that would come to permanently scar in time and would show everyone that Harry was bonded.

He couldn’t believe that he’d held out on this for so long. Ten years he’d wanted to see his mark on Harry’s neck. For ten years he’d loved this man beside him and today, he had marked him as his for the rest of their lives, for anyone and everyone to see, just as he was Harry’s for anyone to see. His hand went to touch Harry’s mark on his own neck. They were finally a true, bonded pair and he held Harry closer, licking his mark more insistently.

 

“If you keep that up then we’ll be going back into the bedroom.” Harry laughed breathlessly.

 

Clint hummed happily. “I’d love nothing more.” He whispered, before sighing. “But our two beautiful children come first, not to mention I don’t want to hamper your recovery. Two rounds might harm you.”

 

Harry sighed too. “Back to the real world of responsibility it is, then.”

 

Clint chuckled. “It’s not so bad. We’re bonded now.”

 

Harry grinned. “We are. Finally!”

 

The two of them climbed into the lift at the end of their floor and they went up to the main floor, to utter havoc and chaos.

Clint swept Harry behind him when a plastic missile flew at them.

 

“What in the hell is going on in here?” Harry demanded. “We leave you alone for two hours and this is what you get up to!”

 

Tony dropped the toy gun he was holding and held up his hands. “Don’t look at me, your son is the one who wanted to play this game.”

 

“Who is the adult here?!” Harry snapped back. “Look at the state of this room!”

 

“Mum, you bonded!” Ellison cheered, ignoring the mess and scampering right on over to them and hugging Harry around the middle.

 

“You finally bonded? This calls for a celebration!” Tony added.

 

“No! You are not getting out of this. No celebrations, no ordering takeaway. You two clean this room, now!”

 

Ellison and Tony groaned together and it was Ellison who got the ball rolling by putting the cushions back on the chairs. Tony joined in after a poisonous glare from Harry and he picked up the masses of toys and their missiles and put them back in their box.

Harry watched them for a moment or two before giving a tight, curt nod and he went into the kitchenette to start making a meal for twenty people, because Steve and Thor still had wickedly fast metabolisms and could eat four times as much as everyone else.

 

“Clint, you supervise and make sure they don’t slip off!” Harry ordered. “I want this room spotless before I’m done with dinner. It’s movie night, tonight.”

 

Ellis cheered and he seemed to gather even more energy as he threw himself into cleaning up the mess that he’d had a hand in making.

 

“You shouldn’t be on your feet for so long after giving birth.” Tony called out after him. “Let me call my favourite take out place and have them order something for all of us, you need your rest. Tell him, Legolas!”

 

“Don’t involve me, he’s my bonded.” Clint said.

 

“No takeaway, get your bum moving and clean this room, Tony. I mean it!” Harry hissed. “Don’t make me call Pepper.”

 

Tony whined and groaned, but he did finally start helping Ellison clean up the living room. Natasha materialised with Eleanor in her arms when the boys were almost finished and she nearly gave Harry a heart attack.

 

“Hell, you better not teach our daughter to do that when she’s older.” Harry gasped, pressing a hand to his racing heart, still holding his wooden spoon. “How was she? Everything alright?”

 

“Perfectly fine, she barely woke up at all.” Natasha told him, looking to the baby girl in her arms lovingly.

 

“Auntie ‘Tasha!” Ellison cried out, running over and clamping his arms around her waist. “Mummy and Daddy are bonded! Properly bonded now!” He said excitedly.

 

Natasha looked at Harry, who was touching his bonding mark with red cheeks, with blatant amusement. “So I can see. It took them long enough, don’t you think?”

 

Ellison nodded his head seriously. “I’m ten years old!” He insisted. “You love each other don’t you?”

 

“Of course we do.” Harry said, already seeing where this was going and sharing a grin with Clint.

 

“Then you should have bonded straight away, as soon as you knew you loved each other!”

 

“Bonding isn’t that simple, Ellison.” Clint explained patiently, coming into the kitchenette to join the conversation properly. “You can’t bond to the first person you fall in love with. Bonding is for life. You need to be sure.”

 

“But you and Mum were sure years ago! Then Mum gave you the bonding mark, but you never gave it back. Did you not love Mum?”

 

“Of course I do!” Clint said immediately and passionately, wrapping a possessive arm around Harry’s waist. “I love your Mother very much. We just had to be sure that there was nothing else influencing our decision.”

 

“Like what?” Ellison asked.

 

Harry and Clint both looked to Eleanor and Ellis followed their gaze.

 

“Eleanor? Why would she influence you _against_ bonding?” Their son asked confused.

 

Harry sighed. “Your Dad didn’t want me to think that he was bonding to me just for your little sister, he wanted to make sure that I knew that he was bonding to me as a person.”

 

“Even I know that’s dumb!” Ellison huffed at the stupidity of his Father.

 

“Oi.” Clint said with a grin, throwing an arm around his son and pulling him into a sideways hug. “I just wanted your Mum to know that he was special.”

 

“You’re always telling Mum he’s special and Mum is _always_ saying how amazing you are!” Ellison complained. “What about me?!”

 

“You’re always very special.” Harry said immediately. “You mean everything to the both of us, Ellison. You have always been our priority, the most important and now you and Eleanor mean the world to us and you always will.”

 

“Even when I’m an old man like Uncle Steve?”

 

“Who are you calling an old man?” Steve demanded in mock anger, striding into the kitchenette with his muscles on display thanks to his tight tee shirt.

 

“Yes, even when you’re as old as Steve, we’ll still love and care for you.” Harry chuckled.

 

Ellis giggled and skipped over to hug Steve around the middle. “I still love you, Uncle Steve. Even if you can’t keep up with me on the obstacle course!”

 

“You are just too fast.” Steve bemoaned. “And you’re getting faster.”

 

Ellison beamed with pride as Harry shook his head fondly and turned back to making dinner, leaving Clint to take the fussy Eleanor from Natasha.

 

“What does she want?” Ellis asked, separating from Steve and going to peer at his baby sister curiously, watching her squirm and fidget while whining. “She’s never done that before.”

 

“She’s getting older now, love. She’s a week old, so she’s getting a bit more vocal. She’s just letting us know that it’s almost time for her next feed and we better not dare miss it.” Harry explained as he stared lovingly at his daughter in the arms of his Alpha. His bonded.

 

“Can you get a bottle, love?” Clint asked.

 

Harry nodded and filled the kettle and set it to boiling.

 

“I want to make up her bottle!” Ellison insisted as he jogged over to the counter, because their son just couldn’t walk anywhere, and he stood at Harry’s side, waiting.

 

Harry got a bottle down from the cupboard and the tin of formula powder. Ellison peeled off the rubber lid and got out the little scoop.

 

“Remember, she needs two level scoops.” Harry said as Ellison dug the powder out with the scoop and allowed Harry to level it off with a butter knife.

 

Ellison careful tipped the powder into the bottle and then repeated it with another scoop, just as carefully, his face etched with concentration. He picked up the kettle of boiling water and Harry hovered over him, without making it look like that was what he was doing.

 

“Sixty-five?” Ellison questioned as he carefully poured the boiling water into the bottle.

 

“Yes, love. Sixty-five millilitres. She only has a small tummy while she’s so young, but she’ll grow quickly now.” Harry said, breathing a sigh of relief when Ellison put the kettle down safely. Ellison picked up the teat and screwed it on tightly and then he shook the bottle like they’d taught him.

 

“You’ll make a brilliant Father one day.” Steve told him. “You’re going to be a wonderful Alpha.”

 

Ellison beamed and he puffed up proudly. “Mum and Dad taught me right!” He insisted, as he often heard others say when complimenting him.

 

Harry shared a look with Clint and he smiled. “Do you want to feed her, Ellis?”

 

“Can I?!” He asked excitedly.

 

“Sure, buddy. Come on.” Clint said as he went into the living room, that Tony had finally finished cleaning. “On the settee.”

 

Ellison excitedly sat on the settee and sat waiting in anticipation as Harry cooled the bottle with a wave of his wand. He could still remember when he had told Clint about his magic while he’d still been pregnant and then over a year later he and Clint had sat down and told the rest of the Avengers as well as Director Fury and Phil Coulson about his magic. The thought still made him smile and he could hear Tony’s affronted ‘You knew about this?!’ directed at Clint, who had stoically nodded as he waited for his team and his superiors to react to the knowledge. It had been so nerve wracking, but magic had not been the weirdest or the worst thing that the Avengers or S.H.I.E.L.D had ever dealt with, so things had been a bit rough, but as soon as everyone had gotten used to him having magic, things had gone much smoother, especially when Ellison had started displaying signs of magic when he was three.

 

“Be careful with her, buddy and watch her head.” Clint reminded their son as he lay Eleanor in her big brother’s lap, keeping his arm supporting her head until he had positioned Ellison properly before slipping his arm away.

 

“She’s getting heavier.” Ellison grinned.

 

“That’s because she’s eating a lot for her tiny body.” Harry smiled as he handed over the bottle.

 

“I need to keep it tilted.” Ellison told himself as he emulated his parents and stroked the nipple on Eleanor’s cheek to encourage her to root for it.

 

Harry watched as his son fed his daughter for a moment before he took a breath and went back to the kitchen, giving Clint a soft touch to the back as he went, just so that he had something physical of his bonded Alpha.

 

“Tony!”

 

“What now?!” The man asked, halfway across the room. “I said I was sorry and I cleaned up!”

 

“Don’t wander off.” Harry said seriously. “Dinner is in, literally ten minutes and if you leave now none of us will see you for the next seventy hours. It’s movie night too. Sit down and wait, please.”

 

“Yes, Mom.” Tony rolled his eyes and dramatically walked back and sat down at the large kitchen table he’d bought to fit Harry, Ellison and now Eleanor too, in with the other Avengers.

 

“Jarvis, can you call Thor and Bruce, please?”

 

“Of course, Sir.”

 

“Do you need any help?” Natasha asked him.

 

“Only to lay the table if you wouldn’t mind, Tash.” Harry said a little distractedly as he juggled saucepans and a mountain of food.

 

“Mum, I did it!” Ellison came tearing into the room to tell him. “And Dad helped me make her burp too! She has a loud burp!” He giggled.

 

“How can you call that little squeak a burp?” Clint demanded, following their son into the kitchenette with their daughter in his arms. “You’ve heard your Uncle Thor burping.”

 

“But she’s just a little baby!” Ellison explained as he sat on a chair waiting for his dinner that Harry was plating up. “Uncle Thor is huge!”

 

“Of course. I am Asgardian.” Thor insisted with a pleased, smug smile as he walked into the kitchen and patted Ellison gently.

 

“Here, here.” Harry said with a smile as he put two plates on the table in front of Tony, to keep the man sat at the table, and in front of Ellison.

 

He served everyone and then sat himself down next to Clint, taking Eleanor and putting her into the carrycot he had on the table on his other side. He strapped her in, just in case, and he started eating his own meal. Conversation was sparse as they ate, but Thor kept them more than jolly as he told another one of his Asgardian war stories to Ellison, who was rapt with attention as he listened to the warrior’s tale.

Harry had told a few stories from the wizarding world over the years and he’d gained a lot of respect from the Avengers for what he’d done in his past. He had finally told them about the war, about everyone he’d loved dying and the aftermath being the catalyst to him leaving and coming for a fresh start in America. He’d shown his physical scars and laid himself bare, showing his emotional scars too. He’d been accepted and comforted and now, over a decade after the war, he had friends again, very close friends whom he loved and who cared for him in return. He was finally bonded to a wonderful Alpha who cared for him and looked after him and they had two beautiful, wonderful children together. What more could he need?

After dinner, Ellison all but threw his plate into the dishwasher and bounced around them until they started moving too.

 

“Alright, come on.” Bruce laughed as he took Ellison’s hand, a lot more comfortable with the young boy now after ten years, despite the other guy.

 

Bruce took Ellison into the living room, where the ten year old proceeded to claim the best seat for himself, before hurrying everyone else along by bouncing and calling out as they cleaned up the kitchen and loaded the dishwasher.

Harry was one of the last to join the others on the settee as he brought Eleanor with him and took her from the carrycot to put her into the bassinet by the side of the settee. It was easy to keep her calm and quiet with a silencer around her. Harry would be able to hear her if she cried, but while she was in the bassinet, she wouldn’t be able to hear a thing, which was a good thing really as Tony set up the film and started playing it and the noise almost blew their ear drums.

Clint sat next to him and wrapped an arm around him easily and with no hesitation and Harry turned his body into Clint’s, resting on his Alpha, snuggling his face into Clint’s neck and flicking his tongue into his bonding mark. Clint shivered under him and turned burning eyes to him and he paid him back in kind, licking Harry’s mark and Harry let out a small gasp. Oh hell, that was an amazing feeling. If that was what he’d been doing to Clint over these last several months then it was hardly surprising that every time that Harry did it, they usually ended up going to bed together.

 

“Are you, Sean and Paul still going out for lunch tomorrow?” Clint asked. “Or can you beg off and stay in bed with me?”

 

 Harry smiled at the names of his two very best friends. Both were Omegas, like him and now, all three of them were bonded.

 

“Sorry, Clint. You’ll have to make do with tonight.” Harry whispered. “I want to show off my new bonding scar to them. They’ll be so happy.”

 

“Paul might start rubbing off on you, he’s pregnant with his what number child now?” Clint teased.

 

Harry grinned. “His fifth. Two boys and two girls, but this fifth baby is another girl. He texted me this morning.”

 

“How are Sean and Joe? It seems like forever since I last spoke to them.”

 

“That’s because we’ve been staying here and not at the house.”

 

“I like knowing that Joe looks out for you when I’m at headquarters.”

 

Harry nodded. “Ellison is missing Veronica and Victoria. I think he’s crushing on one of them.”

 

Clint laughed and looked at his son, engrossed with the film he was watching. Harry snuggled under Clint’s arm and sighed happily.

Sean and Joe had had Veronica and then just a year later Sean was pregnant again with Victoria. They’d tried for a third baby when Veronica had been five and Victoria had been three, but Sean’s family curse had come into effect and their third baby had been a miscarriage in the second trimester. The couple had been devastated and they hadn’t tried again, not yet. The death of their third child had knocked their confidence and their desire to try again.

 

“Are you sure he’s just not missing kids his own age? I know Tony acts like he’s Ellison’s age, but no ten year old could hope to keep up with Tony’s brilliance.”

 

“He’s not missing school, though. He’s missing just Veronica and Victoria.” Harry said with a smile. “He likes Benji too, but with Benji being thirteen, their interests naturally differ.”

 

“Doesn’t he like Hale?” Clint frowned. “He’s only a month older than Ellis.”

 

“Will you two stop whispering!” Tony demanded. “I’m trying to watch this and you sound like angry bees buzzing in my ear!”

 

“Sorry, Tony.” Harry said with a sheepish smile.

 

Harry cast a silencer around himself and Clint and turned to his Alpha with a grin.

 

“He does like Hale, but Hale doesn’t like Ellis.”

 

“Why not?!” Clint demanded indignantly.

 

“He’s an Omega and Ellison is an Alpha. He’s just a bit wary and now that they’re getting older, they’re not interested in playing as they once did. Hale used to like roughhousing, but he doesn’t like it anymore.”

 

“How about Paul and Killian’s two girls?”

 

Harry shook his head. “The twins are too young. They’re only six.”

 

“So…Veronica or Victoria? I suppose it could be worse.”

 

Harry hit him. “I never said they’d go steady or anything. He’s just crushing on one of them. It’s a little boy’s crush, that’s all. It probably won’t last longer than it takes for him to go to The Magical Arts Academy of Education.”

 

“Are you sure you want to send him to that Academy? It’s all the way in Seattle.” Clint said worriedly. “I don’t like the idea of him going to a boarding school.”

 

“He has magic, Clint. He needs to learn to control it or those accidental outbursts are going to get much worse.”

 

“He’s only blown out a few lightbulbs.”

 

“And if he doesn’t learn to control it, it could be a window next. What if he causes a window to blow and someone is standing by it? Or our Eleanor is playing underneath it?”

 

Clint sighed. “I know, I know. I just…why does it have to be a boarding school? We can pick him up every day, hell, Tony could fly over and pick him up and you can Apparate.”

 

Harry smiled. “We could, but we aren’t going to. We are going to give him some space and independence and he’ll write to us every week and we’ll see him at every holiday. Parents are even invited to go on the weekends for the first year so we’ll be able to see if he’s settling in alright, but I can guarantee that by the end of the first month he’ll have lots of friends and he will tell us that we don’t have to come anymore.”

 

Clint groaned. “It’s probably me. I don’t want my little boy away from me. I can’t protect him if I’m almost three thousand miles away! He’s going to the opposite end of the country.”

 

“And as you’ve said, I can Apparate. The minute that something happens, we can be there within minutes ourselves.”

 

“I suppose we have to trust him to make good decisions without us there to prompt him.”

 

“We’ve got another year to teach him how to behave properly, then we have to believe that we’ve raised him right and that he can walk on his own two feet without us.” Harry said. “He’s a brilliant boy and I’m confident that he’s going to be just fine. You’ll see.”

 

Clint smiled at him and leant right over to peer into the bassinet at their sleeping daughter, her chest rising and falling gently under the blanket that was covering her.

 

“You’re going to be thirty-two in a couple of weeks, have you thought anymore on what you want to do?” Clint asked.

 

“I want to go to that Italian place I like, just me and you.”

 

“What about during the day?”

 

Harry frowned, considering. “There is that Museum exhibit Ellison wanted to…”

 

“No. We are not doing what Ellison wants to do on your birthday.” Clint replied adamantly, as he did almost every year. “Your birthday is for you to be spoilt.”

 

Harry smiled and chuckled a little. “Okay. I want an extended morning lie in with you, a nice lunch to replenish the energy we would have lost that morning and your undivided attention for the whole day.”

 

“I become your Alpha slave for the day, got it.” Clint replied with a grin.

 

Harry chuckled and snuggled in tightly. He sighed and just rested on his Alpha. He looked down the line of the settee and smiled at his friends, those close enough that he saw them as family, all engrossed in the film they were watching, all surrounding Ellison. His beautiful, wonderful, if a bit cheeky, Alpha son.

He looked the other way, to his week old daughter sleeping soundly and he sighed again, heavier and he settled himself more comfortably on Clint. He would never, could never, forget the war or those he had lost, especially when he had daily reminders from his scars (the one on his hip was still painful on occasion.), he had made his own family, including two very close friends in Sean and Paul.

He had learnt that pain, even excruciating torture, could be overcome and that he could come out the other side. It had taken years to overcome and the support of a lot of people, including Captain Luke of the Rapid Response Enforcers team, who had become a personal friend over the years.

Harry smiled to himself, ignoring the film as he had no idea what was going on, and instead he focused on Clint’s heartbeat under his ear. It sounded nice and it made his entire body relax. He could stay here like this forever, all but attached to his bonded Alpha, his family all around him, his two children safe and sound with him.

It might have taken years, but he was happy and healthy and he was once again surrounded by family and close friends. No one should have had to go through what he had in his life, he thought sadly, but he took a deep breath and smiled again. He had suffered horrifically while still very young, but he’d come through it and he’d overcome his past and now he was finally settled again. He was comfortable in his skin once more and he had regained his confidence. He was working a really good job, he was being looked after by his superiors, Phil Coulson still left a cardboard cup of coffee and a muffin on his desk every morning. He wasn’t overworked, he never had to stay after hours and he no longer made a bed under his desk because it just wasn’t worth it to go home. He had a wonderful family, wonderful friends and he was happy, truly happy. What more could he actually want?

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

 

Clint smiled down at his Omega once the second film had ended. Harry had fallen asleep while resting against him and he couldn’t help the swell of love he felt as he looked down at Harry’s softly creased face as he slept.

 

“I love you.” He whispered, brushing Harry’s hair from his face, pulling a strand from out of his mouth.

 

“Right, I’m getting this monkey to bed.” Steve said with a grin as he hefted a sleeping Ellison up into his arms. “We shouldn’t have let him twist our arms into watching the sequel too.”

 

“It’s the summer holidays, late nights and later mornings are normal.” Tony waved off. “Though I have a feeling that he is not going to be happy in the morning.” He laughed looking at Clint still cuddling Harry.

 

“He’s still recovering.” Clint defended.

 

“More like you wore him out this afternoon.” Tony quipped back quickly.

    

Clint grinned, unashamed of what he and Harry had done and it probably had taken a lot out of Harry. He was sure that Harry didn’t regret it either as he fingered his mark on Harry’s neck. It wouldn’t take long to permanently scar. Harry would wear his mark for the rest of their lives and he swelled with pride as he looked at him.

 

“You want me to grab Eleanor?” Natasha asked.

 

“Do you mind?” Clint asked.

 

“No.”

 

Natasha scooped up the week old baby girl gently and kissed her pale cheek softly. “She’s beautiful.”

 

“She came from Harry, what do you expect?” Clint said easily and proudly.

 

“You hit the jackpot with that one.” Tony agreed. “If you could tear your eyes away from him long enough, you’d see all the jealous scowls aimed at you or the lustful tongue lolling aimed at Harry.”

 

Clint growled. “I don’t want to see it or I’d break every bone in their bodies!”

 

“Calm down.” Natasha told him with an eye roll at the ridiculous territorial possession of Alphas. “Harry chose you, he wanted to be with you and he actively planned to have this baby girl with you. No one is going to take him from you, he wouldn’t allow it and after ten years, you should know by now that he is a very tough cookie and he can more than handle himself.”

 

“I don’t want him to handle himself. I need to protect him.”

 

Natasha scoffed. “He’s more badass than you are. He doesn’t need protecting, he needs love and trust and that’s all he’s ever needed. Give him that and you’ll never be rid of him.”

“Good.” Clint grinned as he kissed Harry before moving his Omega and standing up. He got Harry into his arms and picked him up, kissing him again.

 

“I’ll see you all in the morning.” Tony waved as he left, not going to his bedroom off to the side of the living room, but to the lift, so he could go down to his workshop.

 

Natasha followed Clint as he carried Harry to their floor and to their bedroom. The met Steve on the way.

 

“I got Ellison into his pyjamas and I tucked him in, does he need anything else?”

 

“No, thanks Captain. He’ll be good where he is now.”

 

“Alright. Do you need anything?”

 

Clint laughed softly. “No. Get yourself to bed. We’ll be good once Harry and Eleanor are in bed.”

 

Clint made it to his bedroom as Steve went off to the lift to go to his own floor. He carefully placed Harry in their bed and turned. Watching Natasha murmur softly to Eleanor before kissing her and placing her into the bassinet by the bedside.

 

“Are you okay?” He asked, knowing how painful it was for her not to have her own children.

 

“I’m fine. I’m truly happy for you both and I love being an Auntie. I’ve had a long time to get used to my infertility.”

 

Clint hugged her and held her. “You’re one of my closest friends, my oldest friend.” He said. “I care very much for you. You make a wonderful Auntie and Ellison loves you. I just know Eleanor will too.”

 

Natasha smiled. “Of course she will. Pepper and me are the only females and the only Betas here.”

 

“Pepper’s usually always at work. You’ll be the first one she runs to.”

 

Natasha chuckled softly at that and looked back into the bassinet. “I’m glad that you found your happiness, Clint.”

 

Clint looked at Eleanor and then Harry and he couldn’t stop the proud grin. “Yeah, me too.”

 

“You better be up at six for our sparring.” Natasha warned him seriously.

 

“You know I will be.” Clint told her. “I just love getting my arse handed to me every other day.”

 

“It’s only because you’re looking after Harry and Eleanor. You were doing fine before Harry fell pregnant.”

 

Clint smiled. “I suppose a few more beatings won’t hurt.”

 

“Good, then I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow, you better not be late again or I’ll really be mad.”

 

Clint saw Natasha out and he couldn’t help the chuckle that built up as he thought of tomorrow. He was doing his share of night feeds, so he was always tired when he sparred with Natasha, and even Steve on occasion, but he was actually getting better at holding his own while tired, which could only be a good thing, as attacks could happen at any time, even in the middle of the night.

Clint stripped Harry gently and pulled pyjamas onto him, his lover murmuring softly in his sleep. Once done, Clint stripped himself and pulled on a pair of loose sleep pants before climbing into the bed next to Harry, pulling his Omega to rest on him.

He smiled silently as Harry made a noise and curled up tighter around his body.

 

“I love you.” He told Harry softly. “You mean everything to me. You, Ellison and Eleanor are the best things to ever happen to me and I’m glad that you forgave me, that you were willing to build a family with me.”

 

“Love you too.” Harry grunted sleepily. “But if you don’t go to sleep now, I’m going to hurt you.”

 

Clint’s smile grew and he lay down so that he could see Harry’s stubbornly scrunched up face. He kissed his Omega gently and those green eyes that he loved so much slitted open.

 

“Sleep. Now.” Harry commanded as he grabbed Clint around the chest and buried his face into his bare skin.

 

Clint laughed and he kissed Harry’s hair and wrapped his own arms around him, holding the man he loved and adored close to him.

 

“I love you.” He repeated.

 

“I love you too, Alpha. Now go the hell to sleep.”

 

Clint couldn’t stop his chest from shaking as he laughed silently, but he managed to control himself quickly and he snuggled down with his Harry.

He breathed deeply and evenly, stroking Harry’s back softly and comfortingly until Harry’s breathing trailed off into his own deep, soft breaths and Clint knew then that Harry was fast asleep again. His own eyes closed and he yawned before settling himself back down.

Ten years he’d been with Harry. Ten long, happy years. They’d had arguments and fights in that time, more often at the beginning of their relationship than anytime recently, but in that time they’d also had two children, weekly date nights, family days out and numerous other amazingly happy memories that filled him up with love, pride and happiness. Harry was his. Ellison and Eleanor were his. He finally had the family he’d always dreamed of and he wouldn’t let anyone, or anything, take his family away from him. He would fight to the death to protect all three of them and that thought didn’t bother him. Just the opposite really, it filled him with determination and pride. He was an Alpha, if he couldn’t protect his Omega or his children then he didn’t deserve them.

 

“Will you go to sleep?!” Harry hissed at him. “You keep tensing and snarling at me! What’s wrong?”

 

“Sorry, love.” He said a bit sheepishly.

 

“Are you okay?” Harry asked, peering sleepily at him.

 

“Fine. I was just thinking too hard.”

 

Harry sighed. “About what?”

 

“Just you and the kids. How I’d fight to protect you.”

 

“And that thought naturally got you growling and snarling, because the thought of us getting hurt or being targeted.” Harry sighed.

 

He reached up and brushed Clint’s blond hair through his fingers, getting it out of his Alpha’s eyes. “I love you, but you will be sleeping out in our living room on our settee if you don’t go to sleep and stay asleep. Eleanor will be waking up in a couple of hours for a feed and I want at least two hours of sleep before then.”

 

“I’ll take the first feed. I’m sorry I woke you up…twice.”

 

Harry pushed himself up and kissed Clint’s lips. “You’re forgiven, just stop thinking so hard! We’re all safe here. The Tower is locked down for the night. The only one in any danger here is you, from me.” Harry swore.

 

Clint laughed. “Okay, okay. I’m sorry.”

 

This time it was Clint who fell asleep first and Harry was left awake. Laying on his belly, his head pillowed on his folded arms. The strong pain reliever he’d taken after dinner was still working and he felt nothing of his caesarean scar, not even a twinge.

He inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. He slipped his left leg over Clint’s stomach and shifted closer to his Alpha so that the entire length of his body was pressed against Clint’s side. He closed his own eyes and he was asleep within several minutes, happy and surrounded by his family. He was glad that he’d given Clint a chance to make up for what he’d done almost eleven years ago. He had finally built a family of his own and everything was just perfect. He was cared for and looked after and very well protected. He was finally happy and he had everything that he’d ever wanted out of life. There was nothing more that he could ask for to make his life any better, because nothing was better than what he already had. Everything was perfect and he finally had his very own family.

The entire Tower was silent as most of its occupants slept, the only one who was still awake was Tony, down in his workshop chest deep in the bonnet of his car. At least until four in the morning rolled around, when a shrill, high pitched, ear piercing cry came from a tiny bassinet, from an even tinier little person, who woke her two parents like a gunshot had gone off in their ears, but then, that was what happened when you had two highly trained Agents for parents.

Harry moaned and stuck his head under the duvet and Clint groaned and rolled out of the bed, remembering, just, his promise that he would sort out Eleanor during the night. He picked up his little daughter and cradled her in his arms, listening to her snuffling in his arms as she was picked up. It was all very domestic and he loved it, just not at four in the morning.

He sorted out his little girl, winded her, checked her diaper and then tucked her back into her bassinet and climbed back into bed himself, pulling Harry to him. Unlike earlier, he fell straight asleep and that was that. He needed to get back up in two hours to spar with Natasha and Harry would be up just an hour later with Eleanor and Ellison, who would both want breakfast. He couldn’t wait until Eleanor started sleeping through the night, then he could go back to having a fair chance of actually beating Natasha…and maybe they could start having sex every night again and not just stolen moments during the afternoon.

 

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I can’t believe that I’ve actually finished this fic. It was supposed to be a ficlet of ten chapters. I doubled that with twenty-one, but despite it not being a priority fic, I’ve finally finished it and I hope that you lovelies have enjoyed the ride and the story along the way.  
> I have a Bruce/Harry fic that I’m currently re-writing as, as per usual, I rushed the beginning to get to the good stuff. So I’m going back to add in more detail and more scenes. But I’m sure that that fic will be up next in my Avengers males paired with Harry fic challenge.   
> I still can’t believe that this fic is finally done, and it all started from an image I had in my head of Harry being chained to the ceiling. Sometimes plot bunnies emerge from the strangest places, but it’s often those strange bunnies that make the best ideas.  
> If you lovelies have any questions now, then please make sure you’re signed in and haven’t disabled PMs, or I won’t be able to answer! I had this trouble when I finished Blue Moon and it’s awful not to answer questions and probably just as horrible to not have those questions answered! Though if you want to add me on Facebook, I’m under Star Mass, because FB have a problem with StarLight and Massacre, I’m always answering questions and running through theories on there.  
> I’ll see you lovelies soon with my two new Avengers crossover fics. The Bruce/Harry called Secrets and Lies and the generic Tony/Harry fic called Baby Harry Stark, which is also having a massive overhaul after I decided to go in a different direction to the one I was previously going in. Both are previewed on my Facebook page, but until then, lovelies, 
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I know, I know. I shouldn’t be doing this with The Rise of the Drackens and Lycanthrope Factory on the go, but it’s not leaving me alone and it’ll only be a ficlet, I hope. The second chapter will be up soon, I don’t want this to be any longer than ten chapters, so I’ll try and curb myself and the details, but it hasn’t worked so far, but I don’t want it to be on the same scale as The Rise of the Drackens, so be forewarned it will likely have a very vague ending with mentions of happiness and love in the end and I’ll leave it open for a sequel to carry on when I have more time.
> 
> StarLight Massacre. X


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